Jem Cohen’s “Little Flag”

Jem Cohen’s Little Flag (2000) is online at NYmag.com.

But today, watching Cohen’s six-minute opus is an almost unbearably disturbing experience. From the World Trade Center towers looming in the background, to the errant bits of paper drifting through the air, to the spectators’ blustery apparel (matching “Fuck Saddam” T-shirts!), to the young woman sitting forlornly on the ground, seemingly overwhelmed, to the little American flags of the title that gradually become refuse, Cohen manages to say more about the desperate times we’re living in than pretty much any other film of recent vintage, narrative, documentary, or otherwise.