How Long Is “American Combatant”?

Nearly 20 years after director Charles Libin stunned critics with his tale of revolutionaries attempting to stage a coup in the World Trade Center (The Distribution of Lead), he returns with a topical drama about crime, punishment, the passage of time, and the lasting impact of 9/11. While most men seem genetically predisposed to selective memory loss, Fred White (Libin) can't seem to forget the role he played in his sister's death some 20 years earlier. According to Fred, her death during those dark and violent days can also be directly linked to 9/11. These days, Fred's wife has gone, he can no longer hold a steady job, and he's usually drunk. Driven by a need for penance, Fred hires a film student to capture his remarkable testimony and document his grim journey. By intertwining clips from The Distribution of Lead with the newly crafted plot of American Combatant, Libin details the invasion of his sister's apartment by failed white-collar revolutionaries in the late 1980s as he navigates Lower Manhattan in an effort to connect with his ex-wife and children.