Some of the strangest and least-heard stories from September 11, 2001, are being brought to light in a new documentary titled IX XI.
On the morning of 9/11, real estate broker Michael Cuomo was showing a client an apartment overlooking the World Trade Center. As he gestured toward the view, the first plane struck the tower.
His clients immediately fled, while Cuomo headed to one of his favorite restaurants. Believing that the day might be his last, he ordered everything on the menu along with a bottle of champagne.
When the restaurant staff finally saw the news and asked Cuomo whether he knew what had happened, he responded by asking what had happened to the crème brûlée.
That is just one of the unusual stories featured in IX XI, a new documentary that will be screened for free at several unconventional locations this month. The venues include the very restaurant where Cuomo ate that day, a skateboard shop on Canal Street, a Buddhist temple and even an iPad at a newsstand in Manhattan’s East Village. Each location has a connection to one of the film’s featured characters.
“People did things on that day, before they understood what was happening, that were just bananas,” director Sean Wilsey said.
Wilsey said he, like virtually everyone else, was deeply affected by 9/11. But he felt that the event was quickly taken over by political forces and transformed from a real human tragedy into something used to advance various agendas.
He also felt that 9/11 was often discussed in an overly solemn and sanctimonious way. IX XI, he said, is intended to explore the tragedy from a different perspective—one that can be heartbreaking while also finding room for the strange and sometimes darkly funny ways people responded to the event.
The documentary features sit-down interviews with 12 people from diverse backgrounds, including New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast, novelist Nell Zink, professional skateboarder Pat Smith and a Buddhist monk. The World Trade Center was also a well-known skateboarding spot before the attacks.
The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, where both screenings sold out. It has also received endorsements from filmmaker Wim Wenders and cartoonist Alison Bechdel.
The title IX XI is pronounced “eye-ex-ex-eye,” according to Wilsey, and carries multiple meanings.
It can simply represent 9/11. But “IX” can also suggest forgetting or trying to force the memory away, while “XI” represents the person someone was before the attacks. As Wilsey put it, nobody was truly the same after 9/11.
Screening Schedule
The documentary’s upcoming screenings include:
September 8 at 8 p.m. — The Glade at Little Island
September 10, 11 and 12 at 6 p.m. — Ellie Rines Gallery in Tribeca
September 11 — Labor Skateshop on Canal Street, all day
September 19 at 5 p.m. — National September 11 Memorial & Museum, followed by a conversation moderated by Cannon Hersey, grandson of journalist John Hersey, author of Hiroshima
The film will also soon be screened at Aqua Best Seafood, Astor Place Newsstand, McNally Jackson Books and Night Owl Video.
