On May 7 the Sundance Channel pulled Day Night Day Night, a film by Julia Loktev (pictured here), from its schedule a few days after the explosives-packed Pathfinder was found in Times Square. The movie follows a 19-year old female suicide bomber - planning to self-detonate in Times Square - through 48 hours of tension, training and doubt - without revealing her reasons for taking on the task. In contrast to a plethora of shit-kicker thrillers wherein the audience gets to extract revenge, years later, for 9-11 by proxy-punching-in-the-face, kicking-in-the-balls and otherwise giving a merciless ass-fucking to The Bad Guys, this one is much much more ambiguous. And, therefore, more threatening to a country hellbent on throwing the responsibility for thoughtful politics into the garbage disposal ever since.
In the hours following the attacks on the financial and military symbols of American power, I maintained a naive hope the events might serve as a wake-up call for America to re-access the impact of its decisions on the rest of the world. While I didn't find it difficult at all to comprehend why much of the world hates the US, perhaps it was possible the shock of these acts might jolt the mainstream political discourse into some awareness of the desperation and anger that make terrorism an option. In the days following, I abandoned this hope completely: while billing itself as a Christian nation (and, therefore, it seemed, one obligated to forgiveness), America had nothing other than bloodlust and revenge in mind, and has spent the last 9-plus years exacting it.
There were bright spots. RETHINK, a 7-pound volume that "confronts our diversity, our stupidity and cleverness, our preoccupations and rage, our laughter and desperate tears, our need for justice and love, our thirst for blood and power" was a thought-provoking attempt to learn from 9-11 - instead of merely reacting with the most base of instincts. Granta 77 explored the roots of anti-Americanism. And Loktev's movie imparted a sense of empathy for those who undergo the experience of volunteering for a dead-end action without passing judgment on their decision to do so. By not answering the question Why is she doing this? the viewer is compelled to ask Why would anyone want to do this? And because she is not demonized, there is a freedom to consider this question with impartiality and clear-headedness.
And this is precisely why it was dead-wrong for Sundance to pull the movie when it did: it is situations like the attempted bombing in Times Square where we should be wondering why someone would want to do this, and what has been done to get them there. Then, as a free nation, to make adjustments in thought, policy and action. And this is also why the documents released by WikiLeaks - chronicling the machinations of the US over this period - need to see the light of day.
Julia's first movie, Moment of Impact, examined the consequences of an event on April Fool's Day, 1989, when her father was struck by a car. Her forthcoming movie, The Loneliest Planet, starring Gael García Bernal and Hani Furstenberg is a minimalist thriller set in the Republic of Georgia.
*An extract from What Makes Julia Loktev, the Director of a New Movie About a Female Suicide Bomber, Tick? in the NYMag. The full quote: "One Chechen girl in Moscow blew up a truck bomb by running it into a convoy, but before she did, she stopped and bought some bananas, ” explains Loktev. “I thought, It’s not about the truck bomb, it’s the bananas.” Or the pretzel. In Day Night Day Night, Williams stands in front of the Duane Reade on 42nd Street, eating one. With mustard."
Sources/Links:
1 Media Decoder: Sundance Channel Pulls a Film About a Times Square Suicide Bomber
2 NY Mag: What Makes Julia Loktev, the Director of a New Movie About a Female Suicide Bomber, Tick?
3 IMDB: Julia Loktev, Day Night Day Night, Loneliest Planet
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