9-11/9-11
2007 · 24m · Chile
Directed by Mel Chin
Genres: documentary, essay film, historical
Tones: contemplative, dark, provocative
The 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers scarred American confidence; on the same date, 28 years earlier, the US-backed overthrow of Chilean president Salvador Allende began 17 years of Pinochet's military dictatorship, leaving over 3,000 dead and numerous victims and tortured.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Most filmmakers would bury the lede or hammer you with rage; Chin just places two dates side by side and lets the American conscience choke on its own amnesia—it's radical in its refusal to perform outrage.
A formally precise essay film that inherits the structural rigor of mid-century essay cinema while interrogating the archive itself; the restraint of its argument is what makes the historical reckoning so devastating.
The entire weight of this piece rests on one editorial choice—the decision to hold the dates in stark parallel rather than narrate their connection—and that single restraint transforms documentary into something genuinely disorienting and necessary.