Bjorn Johnson’s ‘Memory Box: Echoes of 9/11’ documentary airs on Sky

Officially selected by the Toronto International Film Festival as its centrepiece film to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of 9/11, unique and innovative documentary ‘Memory Box: Echoes of 9/11’ will air 18th January, 9pm on SKY Documentaries ahead of the BAFTA TV Awards.

Directed by filmmakers David Belton (Shooting Dogs, Captive) and Margate-born Bjørn Johnson (Don’t F**k with Cats, Bad Sport), ‘Memory Box: Echoes of 9/11’ unearths a treasure trove of hidden video testimony to create an original, immersive story of 9/11 and its life-changing impact - both then and now. A revelation midway through the film delivers an emotionally uplifting portrait of the power of the human spirit.

In the months following the attacks, nearly six hundred people – survivors and eyewitnesses from New York, Shanksville and the Pentagon – entered a simple plywood video booth created by the artist, Ruth Sergel. Inside this safe space, ordinary people used a self-operated camera to share their personal memories and record their deepest feelings of trauma and loss.

For 20 years, this remarkable archive remained virtually unseen, until it was rediscovered by Johnson who, together with Belton, envisioned a film that brought new meaning to a much-told historical moment. Weaving dozens of the personal testimonies together with archival footage of the attacks, the result is a startling and visceral work that delivers a raw, confessional intensity rarely seen in conventional documentary.

Bjørn Johnson said: “This was a deeply personal film to make. Having experienced the sudden loss of my mum just before 9/11, the instant life-changing impact of the attacks had always struck a powerful chord. For years I wanted to make a film that explored the trauma I imagined the victim’s families were going through. A trauma that I suspected mirrored my own. Discovering Ruth Sergel’s incredible archive collection finally gave me the chance to do that. Her simple self-operated video booth offered people that rare thing in life, a safe place free of questions or agenda, to talk openly and of their own accord. The emotional, transcendent truth that emerged was unlike anything I had ever seen before and became absolutely integral to the tone of our film.”

In a twist which broadens the narrative beyond its subject matter, some of the original contributors return twenty years later to a new video booth to reflect on living with their experience. Intertwining hope with grief, joy with loss, the film becomes a profound and timely meditation on the power of human resilience.