9/11 'watch-party' organiser hits back at criticism, says event is ‘simply an opportunity for people to think and talk’
Pierre Delancey told LBC's Tom Swarbrick that the event 'does not need to have any greater aim than people being in a room and thinking together'
A so-called 9/11 “watch party” replaying news footage of the attacks has faced backlash from critics who say it risks trivialising a tragedy.
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The event is due to be held at the Wild Boscombe Café in Bournemouth following the 25th anniversary of the attacks, and is organised by arts group Verdurin.
Its organiser, writer and curator Pierre Delancey, rejected the description of Verdurin as a political organisation, saying there was “nothing political” about people coming together to watch publicly available footage.
He told LBC’s Tom Swarbrick that the screening was not intended to celebrate the attacks, but to allow people to reflect on how the events were reported and understood in real time.
“Tonight’s event is simply an opportunity for people to think and talk,” Mr Delancey told LBC. “It does not need to have any greater aim than people being in a room and thinking together.”
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The event will include re-runs of television broadcasts covering the attacks on the World Trade Center, when 19 al-Qaeda hijackers seized four commercial passenger planes in the US on September 11th 2001.
Two planes were flown into New York’s Twin Towers, causing both buildings to collapse. Another struck the Pentagon near Washington DC.
A fourth crashed in rural Pennsylvania after passengers bravely fought back against the hijackers.
In total, 2,977 people were killed and tens of thousands more were injured.
Mr Delancey said 9/11 had been a defining moment in the relationship between major events and television news coverage.
“9/11 is arguably the first event that was staged by the attackers for the cameras,” he said.
He added that the programme would examine how broadcasters built a narrative as details emerged, alongside later material exploring both legitimate and conspiratorial interpretations of the attacks.
The Wild Boscombe Café has said the event is not “intended as a celebration or trivialisation” of 9/11.
Verdurin says it addresses “urgent cultural, political, and philosophical questions through visual culture”.