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Some untold 9/11 stories are the strangest ones. They come to light in a new documentary.
By
Stephen Nessen
Published Sep 6, 2026
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Norbert Eisele-Hein/imageBROKER/Shutterstock
By
Stephen Nessen
Published Sep 6, 2026
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On the morning of Sept. 11th, 2001, real estate broker Michael Cuomo was showing a client an apartment with a view of the World Trade Center. As he gestured to the view, the first plane struck. His clients fled, and Cuomo went to a favorite restaurant and ordered everything on the menu and a bottle of champagne, assuming this would be his last day alive.
When the restaurant workers finally saw the news and asked if he knew about the attacks, Cuomo responded by asking what happened to the creme brulee.
That’s one of the stories told in a new documentary “IX XI” screening for free at some unique locations this month, including the restaurant where Cuomo ate that day, a skateboard shop on Canal Street, a buddhist temple, and even on an iPad at a newsstand in the East Village, each location connected to a character in the film.
“People did things on that day, before they understood what was happening, that were just bananas,” director Sean Wilsey said.
“ I was really affected by 9/11 like everybody was and then I felt like pretty quickly it was just co-opted by so many political forces that it no longer existed as like a real event, but as this totemic thing that people would like trot out for their own agendas,” he said in an interview before a screening this weekend. “And then also it was like only talked about in a kind of sanctimonious way. This movie is really heartbreaking, but it's also really funny, which is crazy.”
The documentary features sit down interviews with 12 people from wide ranging backgrounds including New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast, the novelist Nell Zink, professional skateboarder Pat Smith, (the World Trade Center was a well known skate spot), as well as a buddhist monk.
The film debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival to two sold out screenings, and won endorsements from Wim Wenders and Alison Bechdel.
The title “IX XI” is pronounced [eye-x-x-eye], which Wilsey said has a triple meaning. It could just be 9/11, or “IX is like I forget, I try to force it away, I’ve forgotten, trying to force the memory of the day away,” he said. “ XI is like the person I used to be. Nobody was really the same after 9/11.”
The full list of screenings includes:
September 8 at 8 PM, in the Glade at Little Island.
September 10, 11 and 12 at 6 PM at Ellie Rines Gallery in Tribeca.
September 11 at Labor Skateshop on Canal Street all day.
September 19 at 5 PM at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, with a conversation moderated by Cannon Hersey, grandson of John Hersey who wrote "Hiroshima."
The film will also soon play at Aqua Best Seafood, Astor Place Newsstand, McNally Jackson Books and Night Owl Video.
Tagged
Existing in New York City
film
Stephen Nessen
Stephen Nessen covers transportation. Since 2008 he has reported on everything from Occupy Wall Street, the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site, Hurricane Sandy, to Trump’s campaign for president. His transportation reporting has taken him everywhere from the MTA’s secret Rail Control Center to the gleaming subways of Seoul. Got a tip? Email [email protected].
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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