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Interview with Mira Nair about the 11’ 09” 01 - SEPTEMBER 11 project
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Where were you on September 11 2001? What did you feel when you learnt about these events?
- I was at the Toronto Film Festival, preparing for the first day of press for my film 'Monsoon Wedding'. I was startled, impressed, then went into a TV-watching limbo with my fellow actors.
You are a very busy film-director. Yet you did not hesitate to answer this invitation: joining in a collective work based around the September 11 events in New York by making one of the 11 shorts. Why?
- It was an opportunity to express cinematically the state of the world from the point of view of South Asian eyes in New York.
Had you thought of expressing yourself around the events of September 11 before being asked to participate in "11’09’’01"?
- No.
What events or personal experiences did you want to bring to light through your short? What personal echo to the events of September 11?
- I wanted to make a statement against the current of Islamophobia that is sweeping the world since September 11.
How did the idea of your film come to you? Immediately or after long consideration?
- My writer, Sabrina Dhawan, brought the story to me from the newspapers.
Has the time constraint of 11 minutes, 9 seconds and one frame, imposed on every short, caused difficulties when constructing your story. How did you deal with it?
- I think the time-constraint is French conceptual bullshit.
How did the actors and the technicians make and experience their contributions to the film? How did the shooting progress?
- It was special and compelling, since the real characters mingled with the actors who 'played' them, giving us a particularly charged atmosphere of truth.
Each director has built up his or her film without having the slightest inkling of what the others would do. Has this been a problem for you? How have you experienced or 'lived' this collective work?
- I haven't lived a collective work. Only that I have a great respect for the other directors and am happily curious.
In your view, can the film bring new perspectives to a reflection on our contemporary world? Can cinema function as an instrument for peace?
Cinema must be a mirror of the world we live in. We must use the medium to provoke, unsettle, enjoy and move the people from slumber.
Do you think that the events of September 11 will influence your future films?
- Yes.
Do you think there exists a 'before' and an 'after' September 11, such events constituting a rupture in contemporary history?
- Yes.
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