***½/****
directed by Steve Rosenbaum
by Walter Chaw An often-harrowing collection of amateur video taken on the days in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, 7 Days in September accomplishes what so many retrospectives since that day have failed at in its evocation of the immediacy of atrocity and outrage, fear and fury of a day that is already fading into the repository of memory and irony. Footage, seldom-seen in a dangerously squeamish United States, of a person jumping from a building shares time with the immediate reactions of people hiding from the smoke and debris. The picture is very possibly the first documentary to attempt, however successfully, to discard sentimentality in favour of the kind of reportage and scrutiny that has proven too painful for many to this point. The most thought-provoking thing about the piece, though, is the suspicion that no American-made film tackling the events of that day will be free of bracing, consoling self-platitude–that instinct to seek out reassurances in the midst of calamity that indicates much of the dialogue post any apocalypse. Had 7 Days in September ultimately resisted the urge to join in the clamour to congratulate New Yorkers on their strength and resilience (inarguable, but banal as far as observations go), the picture would be one of admirable power and restraint. As it is, it's at once the best document we have to date of the visceral realities of the events of 9/11 and another strong argument for the importance and pervasiveness of digital video in a post-information age.
