A few months ago, a thought entered my head. An idea for a personal project. I couldn’t quite shake it off, even after a few weeks. In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I knew I had to do it. So, I booked flights and made plans with friends to be in New York the weekend of the tenth anniversary of 9/11. Here’s the result:
This short film contains footage created over a twelve hour period last Sunday starting a bit before sunset. I shot from Brooklyn and multiple locations in Manhattan, both public and private. My friend Thaniya drove me and my gear around town for the first part of the night so that I could cover ground quickly for the long shots. I then spent midnight to almost 6AM walking around downtown on my own to get the close up shots.
It was an intensely emotional night for me once I was on my own in downtown, especially after my iPhone’s battery died and took away my connection to the world at large. I don’t really have words to put to the thoughts I was thinking in the wee hours of the night as I walked, set up shots, and clicked away. That feeling stayed with me for the next week as I assembled still frames into video clips and then edited them together into this film. I may not have the words, but I think this short film expresses everything I want to say.
Posted by James Duncan Davidson.