SYNOPSIS | BIOS | CREDITS

SENTENCE SYNOPSIS
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The site of the former World Trade Center is explored from morning to night, in its new incarnation as a major tourist attraction in New York City.

SYNOPSIS: WORLD TOURISM CENTER captures the sights and sounds of the World Trade Center area as it was through much of 2002. This moment of time is fleeting, caught between the periods of unimaginable destruction and imminent rebuilding. WORLD TOURISM CENTER records this moment from relative quiet of early morning, to the noisy tourist bustle of the afternoon, to the lingering visitors and vendors who take their leave soberly at night.

WORLD TOURISM CENTER captures multiple views and aspects of the WTC area in its post-9/11 condition. Dense, makeshift murals are decorated with photographs of missing people, and clothing with handwritten messages of sympathy. Street vendors sell various WTC souvenirs, including snapshots taken around the World Trade Center on 9/11. One man, selling snapshots taken around the World Trade Center on 9/11, offers his views on what he sells and the tourists, "What they're going to see ain't any different from any construction site." The piece ends with a response to his statement; as a police officer closes up the viewing area, the camera zooms closer and closer into the shelled-out site of the former WTC, searching for a trace of what was there, and finding its own digitized reflection. This final image echoes with that of every tourist who has aimed their camera at this immense void, and asks, "Where is it that we are shooting? What is it that we are trying to capture?"

WORLD TOURISM CENTER, directed by Kevin Lee, is a work of observation and reflection. There is no voice-over narration to lead the viewer from one insight to the next. The filmmaker acknowledges that there are no easy answers to the complex and often troubling images that appear on screen. Are these visitors here to pay respects to the immense loss of life created by a national tragedy, or to partake in a tourist's pleasure at seeing a one-of-a kind landmark? Are the people who sell souvenirs of the WTC disrespectfully exploiting and commercializing a disastrous event, or are they making an honest living offering goods and services to a mass of people who desire them?

WORLD TOURISM CENTER raises these questions not with an overt voiceover narration, but with a meditative camera technique that reflects both the psychic wounds that linger on in the minds of many Americans, while capturing the ways in which people continue as they must with their daily lives. In a world oversaturated with media spins on September 11 and its aftermath, the main purpose of WORLD TOURISM CENTER is to record with vivid detail a unique but transient moment of American history and culture in a way that raises worthy questions without passing judgment.

BIOS
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WRITER, PRODUCER AND DIRECTOR: KEVIN B. LEE
Kevin Lee is an independent filmmaker based in New York City. His documenary "Take a Look: Chinatown, NYC Post 9/11" showed the effects of 9/11 on the Chinatown community; it was broadcast on PBS and played to film festivals across the nation. Mr. Lee's recent credits include "Banana" a 30 minute short about a Chinese immigrant who thinks his son is literally a banana. Mr. Lee is currently working on two feature-length screenplays.

CREDITS:
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GENRE: Documentary Short

RUNNING TIME: 11:00

MEDIUM: Digital Video

LANGUAGE: English, with ambient audio in other languages.

Shot at the site of the former World Trade Center during July and August 2002

QUESTIONS WITH KEVIN LEE

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What inspired you to make this work?

It wasn't until this summer that I decided to visit the site of the WTC. Up to that time I felt I had no business going there, I didn't trust the nature of my interest. But finally after some time I decided that my desire to go was more to bear witness than to gratify my curiosity. When I first got there, I was expecting there to be visitors from all over the world. What surprised me was the number of vendors selling souvenirs of all kinds, most of them seemingly homemade: pictures books about 9/11, CD-ROMS and multimedia kits combining video footage with patriotic music. And people were buying them! At first I was outraged by the commercialism going on at this site, but then I thought, after all, this was theWorld Trade Center. That's when I decided to hang around over a couple more weekends and just take it all in with my camera and my eyes, while being as non-judgmental as possible.

Why is there no voice-over narration in WORLD TOURISM CENTER?

That was the easiest way for me to make my work non-judgmental. Just show the sights and sounds, recreate the environment, that's all I really wanted to do. Of course, a very skillful filmmaker can provide a very fair and non-judgmental voiceover, and of course not having a voiceover narration doesn't mean there won't be editorializing going on in the decisions I make while editing the footage. But I decided to play with what I thought were my strengths, to do a lot of showing, not so much telling people what to think. There's been plenty of telling going around anyway, for better or worse.

What do you feel you learned or gained from the experience of making WORLD TOURISM CENTER?

I think it really helped me connect to a lot of the humanity of this tragedy and its aftermath. Not in the commonly accepted notion of humanity as heroism, sacrifice, all those noble ideas that happen every once in a while. Doing this piece helped me consider that understanding humanity may involve understanding why people pose for photos in front of a site where 3000 people lost their lives, why they buy and sell all kinds of bizarre souvenirs. When I think on these images now, I find it kind of triumphant, though in a way that couldn't be more anticlimactic to the standard idea of humankind triumphing over tragedy. But it's not necessarily a cynical observation either. It's just very real.