List of cultural references to the September 11 attacks

Last updated

This list of cultural references to the September 11 attacks and to the post-9/11 sociopolitical climate, includes works of art, music, books, poetry, comics, theater, film, and television.

Contents

Art and design

Ground Zero by Bobb Vann Ground Zero, by Bobb Vann.jpg
Ground Zero by Bobb Vann
Orfeus or Paradise Lost by Marike Stokker Orfeus.jpg
Orfeus or Paradise Lost by Marike Stokker

Biology

Classical music

Film

International

North America

Video, television, and theatrical release: documentaries

Video, television, and theatrical release: feature films

ReleaseTitleDirectorComments
2017 9/11 Martin Guiguibased on the play Elevator by John Patrick Carson.
2006 The 9/11 Commission Report Leigh Scottbased upon the 9/11 Commission Report .
2018 12 Strong Nicolai Fuglsig based on the first soldiers sent into Afghanistan after 9/11.
2002 25th Hour Spike Lee set in post-9/11 New York and puts Ground Zero in the background of a pivotal scene.
2007 A Broken Sole Antony Marsellisa trilogy of 2007 American short films that use 9/11 as a backdrop.
2012 Airborne Dominic Burns independent film about a hijacked airliner. The film introduces its story by pretending since 9/11 there would be a so-called "Firelight Protocol" which had been "designed to protect those on the ground".
2014 American Sniper Clint Eastwood 9/11 coverage is shown on TV.
2010 The Conspirator Robert Redford about the response to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Critics have cited it as an analogy to the post-9/11 atmosphere. [9] [10]
2011 Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Stephen Daldry based on the book of the same name that depicts the September 11 attacks and a family's experience in the aftermath.
2006 A Few Days in September Santiago Amigorena about a CIA agent with advanced intelligence of the September 11 attacks.
2006 Flight 93 Peter Markle television film directed by that aired on A&E.
2004 The Hamburg Cell Antonia Bird a television film based on Ziad Jarrah, a non-religious and westernized Lebanese who falls into a group of radical Muslims in Hamburg, Germany, and eventually becomes United Airlines 93's hijacker pilot.
2018 The Looming Tower television miniseries for Hulu.
2007 Reign Over Me Mike Binder about a man dealing with the loss of his family on 9/11.
2010 Remember Me Allen Coulter The attack on the World Trade Center serves as the film's climax and twist ending; the film does not show the attacks, but rather relies on audiences realising what's about to happen.
2019 The Report Scott Z. Burns based on the investigation of the CIA's use of torture following 9/11.
2004 Tiger Cruise Duwayne Dunham A Disney Original Channel Movie that depicts a fictional account of the USS Constellation (CV-64) 2001 Tiger Cruise. Follows a young girl, her friends, and their military family members from September 9 to September 14. Helped explain 9/11 to children.
2006 United 93 Paul Greengrass based on the events of United Airlines Flight 93.
2008 W. Oliver Stone about George W. Bush.
2006 World Trade Center Oliver Stone based on the rescue of John McLoughlin and Will Jimeno.
2021 Worth Sara Colangelo about the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund.
2012 Zero Dark Thirty Kathryn Bigelow the film opens with calls from people in the towers.

Middle East, South Asia, and diasporas

Video, television, and theatrical release: documentaries

  • Arabs and Terrorism (2007), an American documentary in six languages, filmed in 11 countries, comprising 120 interviews with "experts/politicians and hundreds of street interviews in the United States, Europe, and the Arab world." [11] [12] [13]
  • Being Osama (2004), a Canadian documentary that explores the Post-9/11 lives of six Montreal Arab men, all with the first name Osama.
  • Divided We Fall: Americans in the Aftermath (2006), an American documentary made in response to the murder of a Sikh man as a result of the post-9/11 atmosphere. [14] [15]
  • It's My Country Too: Muslim Americans (2005), a documentary that follows the journey of the South Asian rock music band Junoon during their tours to post-9/11 America.
  • Stand Up: Muslim-American Comics Come of Age (2009), an American documentary about five stand-up comedians who respond to the post-9/11 atmosphere. [16] [17]

Video, television, and theatrical release: feature films

ReleaseTitleDirectorComments
2007 AmericanEast Hesham Issawi an American drama about Arab-Americans living in Post-9/11 Los Angeles.
2009 Amreeka Cherien Dabis an American/Canadian independent film that documents the lives of a Palestinian American family and their experiences in Post-9/11 suburban Chicago.
2008 The Baby Doll Night Adel Adeeban Egyptian film set in Cairo post-9/11.
2003 Bandhak Hyder Bilgrami an American film that explores the theme of racism against South Asian Americans post-9/11.
2007 Brick Lane Sarah Gavrona British film that tells the story of Nazneen, a Bengali who grew up in Bangladesh. It follows her experiences after she moves to London before, during, and after 9/11.
2006 Hope and a Little Sugar Tanuja Chandra an Indian film that explores the impact of the post 9/11 atmosphere on a Sikh family and their Muslim friend.
2011 I Am Singh Puneet Issar an Indian film about the murder of Ranveer Singh's younger brother (who was living in the United States when it happened) as a result of the post 9/11 climate.
2006Just Your Average ArabRaouf Zakia 2006 American film in which "Arab-American characters meet in the storage room of a convenience store where they take an 'Arab American Survival Guide post 9/11' class." [18] [19]
2007 Khuda Kay Liye Shoaib Mansoor a Pakistani film that tells the story of three Pakistanis and their lives before and after 9/11 in regards to the after-effects to Muslim Americans from the 9/11 reactions.
2009 Kurbaan Rensil D'Silva an Indian film that tells the story of Avantika Ahuja and Ehsaan Khan in India and the United States Post-9/11.
2004 Madhoshi Anil Sharmaan Indian film that is about Anupama Kaul whose sister is killed during 9/11.
2010 My Name Is Khan Karan Johar an Indian film that is a Bildungsroman of the life of Rizwan Khan. It begins with his childhood in Mumbai and progresses to his later years living in the United States before, during and after the events of 9/11 in regards to the after-effects to Muslim Americans from the 9/11 reactions.
2009 New York Kabir Khan an Indian film that tells the story of Samir, Maya, and Omar. They are three New York college students whose lives are changed by 9/11 and its aftermath.
2006 The Road to Guantanamo Michael Winterbottom a British docudrama about British Pakistani and British Bangladeshi young men who were impacted by the Post-9/11 climate.
2010 Tere Bin Laden Abhishek Sharma an Indian film that is a comedy about journalist Ali Hassan living in Pakistan. Due to his desperation to migrate to the U.S., he makes a fake Osama bin Laden video using a look-alike, and sells it to TV channels.
2004 Yasmin Simon Beaufoy a German/British film set in a British Pakistani community in parts of Keighley, West Yorkshire, England before and after 9/11.
2006 Yun Hota Toh Kya Hota Naseeruddin Shah an Indian film that tells the story of a group of people from India who were aboard the ill-fated flights that crashed into the WTC and the Pentagon on 9/11.
2013 Viswaroopam Kamal Haasan an Indian film that tells the story of India's foreign intelligence service Research and Analysis Wing's participation in America's War on Terror after the 9/11 attacks perpetrated by Al-Qaeda agents.

Internet

Literature and poetry

Fiction and non-fiction

Australia

  • "The Caribou Herd" (2003) by Miles Hitchcock won The Age Short Story Award in 2003. The narrator is an elderly English man with dementia, flying to New York on the day of the attacks and reminiscing about the 20th Century.

Europe

  • A Manhã do Mundo (The Morning of the World) (2001) by Pedro Guilherme-Moreira.
  • Brick Lane (2003) by Monica Ali. The novel tells the story of Nazneen, a Bangladeshi woman who moves to England and her life before and after 9/11.
  • Burnt Shadows (2009) by Kamila Shamsie [24]
  • Dead Air (2002) by Iain Banks. An early chapter is set in London on September 11, 2001. The main protagonist is a left-wing radio "shock jock" attending a wedding when news of the attacks filters through (Tuesday afternoon British time).
  • Eleven (2006) by David Llewellyn. The novel takes place in Cardiff and London on September 11 and deals with the impact the terrorist attacks have on the lives of people in the UK.
  • False Impression (2005) by Jeffrey Archer. The novel is a thriller that takes place during and immediately after 9/11. The heroine, Anna Petrescu, survives the World Trade Center attack.
  • Netherland (2008) by Joseph O'Neill. The novel tells the story of a Dutch businessman who lives in New York and is traumatized by the events of 9/11.
  • Saturday (2005) by Ian McEwan. The novel is set in London after the September 11 attacks but before the 7 July 2005 London bombings. The novel shows how much the world has changed since the attacks in America.
  • When God Was a Rabbit (2011) by Sarah Winman. The protagonist and her brother are living in America at the time of the 9/11 attacks, and the main character believes her brother and his best friend have died in the crash.
  • Windows on the World (2003) by Frédéric Beigbeder. The novel is set in the restaurant at the top of the North Tower on September 11. It tells the story of Carthew Yorston and his two sons as they try to escape or somehow survive the attack. Each chapter of the book represents one minute in time between 8:30 and 10:30 on 9/11. It also features a parallel narrative wherein the author, a French writer sympathetic to America, discusses the process of writing the book and his motivations for doing so.

North America

  • American Widow (2008) by Alissa Torres. A graphic novel by Alissa Torres, who was eight months pregnant when her husband Eddie Torres perished in the WTC on 9/11.
  • Between Two Rivers (2004) by Nicholas Rinaldi
  • Bleeding Edge (2013) by Thomas Pynchon. The novel is a detective story which takes place between the burst of the dot-com bubble and the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.
  • Brooklyn Follies (2005) by Paul Auster
  • The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah (2004) by Stephen King. Two characters place an artifact known as Black Thirteen in a coin-op storage unit in the World Trade Center in 1999, intending to leave it there forever. After leaving, they half-jokingly discuss what would happen if the towers were to collapse on the object.
  • A Disorder Peculiar to the Country (2006), by Ken Kalfus. The novel follows the lives of New Yorkers Joyce and Marshall Harriman who are in the middle of a nasty divorce. In the early morning hours of September 11, Marshall leaves for the World Trade Center and Joyce for the airport. [25] [26]
  • The Emperor's Children (2006), by Claire Messud. The novel traces the lives of three NYC friends before and after the events of 9/11.
  • Everyman (2006), by Philip Roth. The protagonist of the novel moves to the New Jersey shore as a result of the fear he feels in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.
  • Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2005) by Jonathan Safran Foer. The novel follows the narrator, 9-year-old Oskar Schell, whose father was on the upper floors of the World Trade Center when the jets crashed into the Twin Towers. To fight his grief and quell his imagination, Oskar embarks on a quest to find what he hopes is his father's most illuminating secret. In service of this quest, Oskar conquers many of his irrational fears and comforts other damaged souls.
  • Falling Man (2007), by Don DeLillo. The novel features a protagonist who survives the attacks on the World Trade Center.
  • Forever (2003) by Pete Hamill. The novel tells the story of an Irish immigrant who is granted immortality, provided that he never leaves the island of Manhattan. Hamill completed his manuscript at 11:20 pm on the evening of September 10, 2001; he was about to deliver it to his editor when the attacks occurred. He spent another year revising the book. As a result, the 9/11 attacks form the culmination of 250 years of New York history described in the novel. [27]
  • The Good Life (2006) by Jay McInerney. The novel takes place immediately before, during, and after the events of 9/11.
  • Home Boy (2009) by H. M. Naqvi. The novel tells the story of three Pakistani college students, AC, Jimbo and Chuck, before and after 9/11.
  • "In Spirit", a science fiction novella by Pat Forde, published in Analog in September 2002 and nominated for a Hugo Award. A time travel story in which a form of "spiritual" time travel is perfected in the middle of the 21st century and the aged children of 9/11 victims are given the opportunity to go back in time and be with their loved ones "in spirit" in their final moments.
  • Last Night in Twisted River (2009) by John Irving. Portions of the end of the novel take place on September 10 and 11, 2001, and deal with several characters' reactions to learning about the attacks.
  • The Last Illusion (2014) by Porochista Khakpour
  • Let the Great World Spin (2009) by Colum McCann. The novel focuses on Philippe Petit's 1974 tightrope crossing of the Twin Towers, and the effects it has on New Yorkers in 1974. At the end, the novel jumps to 2005, in which one of the character's daughters deals with living in a post-9/11 world, connecting the destruction of the towers to Petit's 1974 walk.
  • The Man Who Wouldn't Stand Up (2012) by Jacob Appel. The novel depicts the life of fictional botanist Arnold Brinkman, a New Yorker falsely branded a terrorist-sympathizer in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.
  • "The Mutants" (2004) a short story by Joyce Carol Oates in I Am No One You Know: Stories .
  • My Year of Rest and Relaxation , a 2018 novel by Ottessa Moshfegh, ends with the attacks in Manhattan, which the unnamed narrator and protagonist records on her VCR.
  • Night Fall (2004) by Nelson DeMille. The novel connects TWA Flight 800 to the September 11 attacks.
  • Patriot Acts: Narratives of Post-9/11 Injustice (2011, non-fiction) edited by Alia Malek. [28]
  • Pattern Recognition (2003) by William Gibson. The first novel to address the attacks; the main character is a marketing consultant whose father disappeared in Manhattan on the morning of September 11.
  • Saffron Dreams (2009) by Shaila Abdullah. [29]
  • Small Wonder , a collection of 23 essays on environmentalism and social justice by novelist and biologist Barbara Kingsolver, published in 2002 and written in response to the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.
  • "The Suffering Channel" (2004) is a novella by David Foster Wallace in Oblivion: Stories . Set in July 2001, its central protagonist, Skip Atwater, is a journalist who works for the fictional Style Magazine, which is located in the World Trade Center. Atwater is attempting to write an article about a midwestern artist, Brint Moltke (whose excrement reportedly resembles famous cultural objects) for the September 10, 2001, issue of Style.
  • Sons and Other Flammable Objects (2007) by Porochista Khakpour
  • Terrorist (2006) by John Updike. The novel explores post 9/11 America through the eyes of a radical Muslim youth and his Jewish guidance counselor.
  • "The Things They Left Behind" (2005) by Stephen King. A supernatural short story about survivor guilt, narrated by a man employed in the World Trade Center who avoided the attacks by taking an impulsive day off.
  • Theater of the Stars: A Novel of Physics and Memory (2003) by N. M. Kelby. The novel centers on two women, a mother and daughter. Both of them are physicists - and both of them have dizzying gaps in their memories of their pasts.
  • United States of Banana (AmazonCrossing 2011) by Giannina Braschi is a dramatic novel in which the collapse of the Twin Towers marks the fall of the American empire on September 11, 2001. [30]
  • United We Stand (2009) a novel that focuses on the aftermath of the attacks.
  • Villa Incognito (2003) by Tom Robbins. The novel features several scenes of military and CIA officials reacting to news of the attacks.
  • We All Fall Down (2006) by Eric Walters. September 11, 2001, was "Bring Your Kids to Work Day", and the main protagonist, Will was going to meet with his father in his office in the World Trade Center. This novel focuses on how Will and his relationship with his father changes on the day of the 9/11 attacks.
  • The Zero (2006) by Jess Walter is a novel about Brian Remy, a New York City police officer suffering memory gaps in the wake of 9/11. [31]

Poetry

Television

Theater

Video games

See also

References

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