As I watched these shorts and edited data for them, I did wonder when one of the films would be at a location connected to 11th September. The answer comes early in the series of 154 short films as this one is based partly at the site of the 9/11 memorial, with its two massive waterfall pits and the nearby construction of One World Trade Centre (or Freedom Tower as it is dubbed). This location puts a lot of pressure on the film because it unavoidably brings a lot of baggage with it that, for example, a bar or a tree in a park would not have. It also made me interested to see what they would do with the sonnet to make it fit the location.
The answer is in a young woman who appears to be reflecting not generally but personally on a loss in that attack. This is a difficult track to take but it is a clever one and I think it fitted the sonnet really well since it makes comments towards the fall of masonry and "wasteful" war, but primarily because it is about the sort of immortality achieved in the memories of those that knew and loved you. This connects very well to the location and to the text of the sonnet and it was an angle that didn't occur to me even though I knew the location.
The weakness in the short though is that the delivery is not quite as good as the idea itself. The panning shots of the memorial and the tower just seemed a bit generic to me and I wasn't totally sure the actress fitted the emotions of what she was saying in the sonnet narration. Maybe access to the location was too tough to get in there with time and sound equipment, but the idea deserved more of a performance rather than just shots across and around the location. Still good though for what it does.
The answer is in a young woman who appears to be reflecting not generally but personally on a loss in that attack. This is a difficult track to take but it is a clever one and I think it fitted the sonnet really well since it makes comments towards the fall of masonry and "wasteful" war, but primarily because it is about the sort of immortality achieved in the memories of those that knew and loved you. This connects very well to the location and to the text of the sonnet and it was an angle that didn't occur to me even though I knew the location.
The weakness in the short though is that the delivery is not quite as good as the idea itself. The panning shots of the memorial and the tower just seemed a bit generic to me and I wasn't totally sure the actress fitted the emotions of what she was saying in the sonnet narration. Maybe access to the location was too tough to get in there with time and sound equipment, but the idea deserved more of a performance rather than just shots across and around the location. Still good though for what it does.