On the twelfth anniversary of 9/11, the Apollo Theatre screened The Unrecovered, a chaotic film that grapples with the psychological aftermath of that tragic day. Originally released in 2007, The Unrecovered is the first feature-length film by Roger Copeland, professor and interim associate program director of theater and dance. The film, a fictional account of the events that transpired, is untraditional in both storyline and pacing, and gets its name from the bodies lost in the rubble of the World Trade Center towers. While the film appears too disjointed at times and even borders on the horrific with its use of frightening images, the end result is worth the constant discomfort experienced while watching it. The Unrecovered does a tremendous job of acknowledging the impact of 9/11, not only on our nation but on our minds.

The Unrecovered tells the story of three very different characters: a 12-year-old girl hunting for her father, a postmodern musician looking for meaning and a conspiracy theorist waiting to ascend into heaven. Their stories take place in the period between the 9/11 attacks and the following Halloween. Naturally, the viewer eagerly awaits the moment their stories will intersect. But Copeland never allows the viewer to have that anticipated moment; while connections are hinted at throughout the movie, none of the three characters’ lives ever truly cross. It is a disappointment for those looking for a movie with a happy ending, but Copeland never intended to put blinders on some of the toughest months for many Americans in recent history.

Copeland’s film is purely an examination of the American psyche post-9/11. His use of imagery in the film makes it truly stand out. Laced with clips of threatening images and people, the film weaves together reality with the extreme paranoia experienced by many people post-9/11. The more unrealistic the film becomes, the further the characters go in their attempts to understand or make meaning of the events of 9/11.

Copeland is clear that his film does not have a “message” in the traditional sense of the word. Rather, The Unrecovered “will induce a particular state of mind in the viewer. … It’s really an attempt to reproduce on film my own state of mind as I watched endless hours of television on 9/11: the vertiginous sense that anything can happen to anyone at any time, that there were no longer any limits of any kind to what might actually occur,” he said.