A unique look at 9/11 in the Memory Box

Best on the Box choice for January 18th…

Directed by filmmakers David Belton and Bjørn Johnson, ‘Memory Box: Echoes of 9/11’ unearths a treasure trove of hidden video testimony to create an original, immersive story of 9/11 and its life-changing impact – both then and now. A revelation midway through the film delivers an emotionally uplifting portrait of the power of the human spirit.

In the months following the attacks, nearly six hundred people – survivors and eyewitnesses from New York, Shanksville and the Pentagon – entered a simple plywood video booth created by the artist, Ruth Sergel. Inside this safe space, ordinary people used a self-operated camera to share their personal memories and record their deepest feelings of trauma and loss.

For twenty years, this remarkable archive remained virtually unseen, until it was rediscovered by Johnson who, together with Belton, envisioned a film that brought new meaning to a much-told historical moment. Weaving dozens of personal testimonies together with archival footage of the attacks, the result is a startling and visceral work that delivers a raw, confessional intensity rarely seen in a conventional documentary.
 

In a twist that broadens the narrative beyond its subject matter, some of the original contributors return twenty years later to a new video booth to reflect on living with their experience. Intertwining hope with grief, joy with loss, the film becomes a profound and timely meditation on the power of human resilience.

‘Memory Box: Echoes of 9/11’ was officially selected by the Toronto International Film Festival as its centrepiece film to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of 9/11, this unique and innovative documentary airs tonight on Sky Documentaires.

Memory Box: Echoes of 9/11, 9pm on SKY Documentaries.