This documentary chronicles the firsthand experiences of New Yorkers during the September 11, 2001 attacks. Through personal home videos and raw narration, it captures the shock, fear, and resilience of individuals witnessing the tragedy unfold. The film presents a vivid mosaic of the chaos and unity that marked that day, highlighting the immediate reactions, emotional struggles, and the community's response. It serves as a powerful tribute to the indomitable spirit of New York City, providing an intimate and poignant perspective on one of America's darkest days.
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00:00September 11th was a beautiful day I got to work and I was working my normal day
00:22I was asleep I was eating my cereal and I was walking just down 5th Avenue I was
00:26standing on the corner of 3rd Street and 1st Avenue I could hear the sound of a
00:30jet coming down it sounded like a jet falling we could almost count the rivets
00:36on the underbelly of the fuselage there was an explosion
00:41my hands were shaking like crazy
00:53I live about a block from the Hudson River I guess you could say the World
01:03Trade Center was my neighbor minutes ago I was walking down Chamber Street I saw
01:10the plane from the sky pass right into it I've been living in Tribeca since
01:171986 and it really is my hometown
01:28I live in Brooklyn and that's my view seeing it through the camera just didn't
01:34register I mean it just wasn't sinking in I saw the plane come into my
01:44viewfinder
01:57as soon as the second plane went in it was certain this is deliberate
02:03I was all alone up on the roof but I didn't feel alone I felt that every
02:07single person all around me downtown was with me we were all together in this
02:15the police want everybody off the roof hurry up hurry up because there's been
02:20another explosion
02:30this is this country of terror you think it is sure yeah the plane for two
02:36planes one way there were two another one just hit it yeah I did not know that
02:41I'm here apparently a second airplane hit the Trade Center they are evacuating
02:51our building the police has asked all of us to get out of these tall buildings so
02:56this is my last recording here at River Terrace
03:02they're evacuating the whole building you bet it's better because it's our
03:05buildings really high yeah was it was a British Airways commercial airline yeah
03:14I saw that one but a second one hit right in the middle you're kidding all
03:22of these tall buildings are being evacuated
03:28the smell of burning wire and metal it's unbelievable
03:35looks as if there's people hanging from the windows
04:05there was debris flying after the second one came in all the papers were
04:16glistening the whole sky was sparkling they flew like way deep into Brooklyn
04:28it became even more real whenever I actually like picked up the papers was
04:34like this came from over there
04:42professional camera person my instincts is get the shot so I went to get the
04:47shot all of a sudden I realized that what I
04:50was seeing coming out of the building was not debris falling that it was
04:54people I had no interest in shooting that footage if a family member or a
05:00child or a friend even thinks that person could be the person then they
05:06know that's not something they want to see
05:30so keep moving
05:39what's going on it's gonna fall
05:44it's gonna explode Jesus Christ
06:00Oh
06:16go go
06:30I had never seen anything like this smoke wave
06:49as you remember the news cast people running from the smoke coming through
07:00the streets well that was me
07:08I was saying to myself this is the end New York is gone that's it this place
07:14is gonna be a ghost town
07:19Oh
07:50just in case something else happens you got concrete around you got concrete
07:55above you this is not a target building there's no federal in here there's no
07:59big offices in here it's not a target building
08:04water machines something get some of these people water
08:20you know here's one of the guys you can tell you I'm okay all right
08:35don't worry about me you need to make calls right now
08:39I got this card man and a large flume of black smoke going up here on West
08:44Broadway and Chambers
08:50I
09:11have an inner sense of where my line of safety is and I thought that I still had
09:17a couple more seconds to stay there
09:25oh my god thank you thank you oh my god you're right oh my god you saved my life
09:42thank you thank you thank you thank you oh my god thank you thank you
10:02when I went outside it was covered with ash and God only knows what that ash is
10:08made out of
10:12yeah
10:28you just got to get out he was in the collapse we got buried it's like zombies
10:33you see these people walking just covered head-to-foot in dust
10:43I was in the 22nd floor, one worker's center. We have to make sure that the people are out also
10:49almost all the people were out but after the second blast everything was so dark
10:53we decided we have to go out and I was waiting outside to make sure that our
10:58team workers are okay should we go in? What? Should we go in? I was there, yeah. Are you going back?
11:13good luck
11:17for God's sake
11:42I don't know I got off the subway and all filled with smoke and they let us out
12:01it is you can't even see outside it's just everything is filled with smoke
12:05anyway I'm in a building lobby that's filled with smoke but at least there's
12:11what? I can't walk, I can't see anything to walk. Did the trade center collapse?
12:20If it wasn't for that storm man over here that found me out I gave up
12:27the dust is so thick you can't see you can't breathe so you just give up
12:40You want to go to the bridge? Walk the Brooklyn Bridge, go down as far as you can and then go across, we'll lock up everything, don't worry about it. Be careful, be safe, all right?
12:52You can walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. If you want to go to Brooklyn, swim. Stay out of Manhattan.
13:02it was a huge exodus everybody was so shocked most people didn't even talk
13:13nothing safe anymore well I think there's like 30,000 workers in each not to mention
13:20the rescue workers were already there after the first plane and all the people around it
13:25I'll tell you, if the people in the Middle East think this is going to help their view, they're wrong.
13:31They're wrong. We're coming to get you in Baghdad, we're coming to get you in Afghanistan. We're coming to get you.
13:41He was just acting spontaneously out of anger, frustration, out of fear, sheer fear.
13:54Stay behind the lines, please.
14:24Everybody just flocked to the radio and it was dead silence. Everybody was just listening to the news reports and watching the images of the towers burning.
14:46We are now getting a report that American Airlines says that one of its flights is down, or at least they've lost contact.
14:531010 Winds News now has live in there, Giuliani has something to say.
14:58We're going to be moving a large number of ambulances and emergency personnel in and out of there all day. I've talked to the governor, he is putting the National Guard...
15:24It's tough. This is beyond...
15:29You know, we can handle just about everything. This is beyond...
15:39They were trying to put the fire out down there with towel ladders.
15:47But we've got all kinds of water problems. The two train buildings took out the mains. There's no way to put the fire out.
16:04This is rush hour, completely empty. All cars have stopped.
16:16I went out about nine o'clock at night. There were police barricades everywhere. This is a street that I walked down many times.
16:36The firefighters had looks on their faces like they had seen something pretty horrific.
16:44Thousands and thousands of people buried down there. A couple hundred firemen, a couple hundred cops.
16:52See that right there? That was the World Trade Center, straight up. This is five and seven, I don't know where it is.
17:43I remember I was shooting a group of firemen heading down there.
17:50I remember I was shooting a group of firemen heading down there.
17:58I remember I was shooting a group of firemen heading down there.
18:06I remember I was shooting a group of firemen heading down there.
18:13And obviously they had been there. It was clear they knew where they were going.
18:20On September 12th, the next day, I went to Washington Square Park.
18:29I saw people just forming this huge circle around the fountain. Nobody had decided to do that.
18:39People were just holding hands, speechless, saying nothing. You knew what happened and you acknowledged it.
18:47There were a couple of times where I captured some people who were just singing.
18:55There were a couple of times where I captured some people who were just singing.
19:03In September 12th, I went to the river where the most incredible thing out of this tragedy happened was Point Thank You, right on the Hudson River.
19:12It was there that a whole bunch of people assembled to cheer on the rescue workers, the firemen, the cops,
19:17It was there that a whole bunch of people assembled to cheer on the rescue workers, the firemen, the cops,
19:25and everyone else who were traveling back and forth between Ground Zero and Chelsea Piers, which was their base of operations.
19:33I'd say the feeling was very patriotic that evening, but more so of New Yorkers coming
19:44together.
19:45I thought I would come across someone who might have been Muslim or Indian or anyone
19:53who really wasn't white.
19:54It was just an immediate sense of panic from them that they were going to be mislabeled.
20:00I love America, man.
20:03He immediately thought I was filming him just because he was an ethnic man, and he immediately
20:07got afraid.
20:08I'm from India, man.
20:09I'm a best friend of America.
20:12I'm from India.
20:13He's always best friend of America.
20:20On September 12th, it was pretty quiet.
20:24I was looking for comfort, something that I could use to think that it's okay to be
20:31in New York after all.
20:47I think that people were tired from watching the news all day, and they thought, well,
20:52I've got to go and find somebody that can give me some hope.
21:22A lot of Arabs around the world feel like they are disrespected also, and we are not.
21:44We are.
21:45We treat them like second-class citizens.
21:47We have stereotypes of them, and we are, even now, American brothers and sisters are
21:51going into places where Muslims live and firing off weapons and pulling people, hardworking
21:57people out of taxi cabs.
21:58We don't have the right to do that.
22:00We also have to do some reflection.
22:07If New Yorkers are taking it with such strength, I mean, I only could draw comfort from that,
22:14and they came out to a park to do that.
22:21The second day I was there, I just walked through with my bicycle, my camera, the combination
22:32of no lights and no humans makes any city spooky, but especially New York.
22:57I do have a friend that has an apartment a block away from the Twin Towers, and I end
23:14up going upstairs and filming.
23:25You had the smoke rising, and then you see the remaining skeletons of the Twin Towers.
23:33It reminded me very much like the Colosseum, you know, it was like the ancient Colosseum,
23:39you know, just a skeleton of it and just such a statement.
23:55I think as close as New York has ever been to a nuclear disaster.
24:25On Thursday, I went down to Lexington Avenue and 26th Street, which is where the armory
24:48is, where families were going to try to find information about their loved ones who were
24:53in the tower.
24:55So it was sort of a focal point for a few days of grieving.
25:02At the time, we were starting to see all the posters with photographs and names and phone
25:06numbers that became a wallpaper of New York City for about a week, two weeks after.
25:24There was a lot of hope, a lot of hope.
25:48Wesley is a 25-year veteran of the Army, and because he was the security officer, security
25:55vice president for Morgan Stanley, I know that he was one of the last people to try
25:59to get out of the building.
26:01Because he got most of his employees out, they have called me and have been calling
26:05to see if he made it home all day Tuesday.
26:11I was glad for the hope.
26:12It also made me sad.
26:16For me, that was really where I began to feel, through these individuals, the enormity
26:21of what was going on.
26:23There was a feeling in the crowd that people were glad that Bill Clinton was there.
26:36This is still two days later, just two days, but there's a need to see someone with that
26:41stature out on the street.
27:11As an industrial designer, I was like, wow, how can I help?
27:41How can I serve my country?
27:43What can I do to help?
27:44What can I design?
27:49But then my girlfriend's a pastry chef.
27:58Two days afterwards, we made a cake to donate and to sort of show our support.
28:13At Pier 40, they sort of established a great network of support of packing goods, unpacking
28:19goods, setting it up, getting it ready to give to people to go down to the World Trade
28:24Center.
28:26Before we knew it, we had spent two hours working, helping, cleaning, organizing this
28:31area, and it felt like five minutes.
28:40Just to give of ourselves in the smallest way, it really felt good to do something like
28:45that.
28:46Keep the area clear.
28:47Need food, clothing, medical supplies.
28:48In the southern corner of Union Square, there was this tremendous beehive of activity, of
29:14people yelling out.
29:15Anyone looking to make a donation, step right here, please.
29:19Everybody wanted to do something.
29:20Hot food and cold food.
29:21Separate.
29:22Toiletries, toiletries.
29:23Toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, soap, medical supplies.
29:24Wonderful.
29:25Batteries, batteries, batteries, batteries.
29:26Yep, we're all set.
29:27Thank you so much.
29:28The thing that hit me the most, as a longstanding New Yorker, you don't see this behavior a
29:39lot.
29:40What people are willing to do and willing to bring, and everybody just saying, how can
29:43I help?
29:44Who gets socks?
29:45Who gets batteries?
29:46Who gets batteries?
29:47Who gets socks?
29:48Who's taking the town?
29:49We're pulling them random cars.
29:50FedEx truck just pulled up, filled up, went off.
29:51Pick it up.
29:52You all got a van?
29:53Yeah.
29:54Okay, great.
29:55We have a truck.
29:56We have a truck here.
29:5734th and 12th.
29:58I think New York showed it's true colors that week in a way that hopefully it will never
30:06in a way that hopefully it will never have to again,
30:09but has made this city much stronger.
30:26A woman wrote on the ground,
30:28the American flag propagates violence.
30:32This is chalk. We can get rid of this.
30:34It's just chalk. It's not that, you know, it's not that bad.
30:37It's just chalk.
30:38There goes the First Amendment of the United States.
30:41Yeah, but you know what?
30:42If you're in the United States, you don't talk like this.
30:44If you don't like the United States, you go home.
30:47That was the part where I witnessed an hour-long
30:50confrontation in the middle of Union Square
30:53between the peoples of New York.
30:56I want the threat to be neutralized.
30:59And if that means erasing them off the face of the globe
31:02so my family can be safe, that's what I want done.
31:05I don't like to wait until the, like the Gulf War,
31:09until the bombs are going, and then it's too late.
31:11And then it's too late to stand with candles and say,
31:14we don't like to have a war.
31:16War will always be with us.
31:18There are military targets and there are not military targets.
31:21That is not a military target.
31:23We're defending an ideal that is better than bombing
31:26against bombing against bombing against bombing.
31:28We are the most perfect nation that's ever been created.
31:31As flawed as we are.
31:32And I'll be damned if I'm going to stand by and let people bomb us.
31:36Then get out of the country.
31:38Get out of our country.
31:40This European pan-theism has got to go.
31:44It's got to go.
31:45The Bible says, if you get a slam on one cheek, give your other cheek.
31:50And God gave us this country.
31:52I will stand to my death and defend it.
31:54God didn't give you anything, okay?
31:56He didn't say the United States is yours.
31:58Because you know what? There were people here before.
32:00God has nothing to do with it.
32:01And that's exactly how the Antichrist is going to rise.
32:05I'm not going to fault anyone for what they said that day
32:07or for how long they fought for,
32:09because it was really just the frustration of being attacked,
32:13feeling unsafe, being unsure, your city being compromised,
32:17your life being compromised.
32:18Because it was emotion.
32:19It was just raw, gutted emotion.
32:22I want you all to fucking stop and shut the fuck up right now.
32:26I'm a local 580 lion worker.
32:28I was down there on the first two days.
32:30And I want a shot of silence.
32:32I will. I will.
32:34I was pulling body parts.
32:36So was I on the first night.
32:38Then what are we arguing about?
32:39I don't know.
32:40We're not arguing. We're trying to talk.
32:41You came here and told everyone to shut up.
32:43I don't know. I am in fucking pain.
32:47Because I have never seen heads, body parts, anything like that.
32:50I can't act out in pain.
32:51We can't act out in pain.
32:53Then what is one side arguing the other?
32:56Let it be to our leaders.
33:02I'm not trying to fight.
33:03I don't know how to process this.
33:05None of us do.
33:06We all have so much rage inside of us.
33:08And what do we do with it?
33:10What do we do with it?
33:12We can't perpetuate the rage.
33:13We have to work through the rage.
33:16Help.
33:23Help.
33:30I'm sorry. I don't want to hurt anybody.
33:31I know. I know.
33:32But what do we do with it?
33:33I don't know.
33:34There's so much emotion. It can't be.
33:36It needs to be channeled somewhere.
33:38Or we're all going to kill each other.
33:40I mean, it's true.
33:41Why don't we stop arguing and start reflecting?
33:45No, we're arguing and then we're hugging.
33:47See? Argue, hug.
34:04At night, I went to Jersey City.
34:06The candle lighting on the Hudson River.
34:11I don't know how many people was there.
34:13300 people, 500 people in a little spot
34:15just to see what's happening there.
34:21It was so beautiful.
34:39What's that for?
34:44To people in the building, yeah.
34:47Hold it up.
34:50Good boy.
35:14On the 15th, there was no easy place to walk
35:18once you got in there.
35:19You had to climb over window frames to get outside.
35:24With that destruction,
35:26the likelihood of pulling somebody out there alive
35:28is going to be slim.
35:31You never said that.
35:32You never said it to your friends,
35:33your partners, to a civilian.
35:35You never said it.
35:38There was a golden rule,
35:39and we were told this before we even entered the building.
35:42They said that if you find a New York firefighter
35:45or a New York police officer,
35:47you don't touch the body.
35:48You don't move it.
35:49You stay with the body.
35:50You call one of the command staff.
35:52They come over,
35:53and New York City firefighters remove the room.
35:55That's the golden rule.
36:03A lot of anger.
36:04A lot of anger in the firefighters.
36:06The anger was,
36:07why did this happen?
36:09We did our normal job.
36:10We came to work at 7 a.m. like we normally do.
36:13Why are we the ones losing 343 firefighters?
36:16Why are we the ones that, you know,
36:18our friends and family aren't going to come home?
36:36This is my apartment,
36:38and this is the dust in my apartment.
36:45Even if a tiny bit of one person
36:47was in a part of that dust,
36:49it was sacred.
36:52I still have it.
36:57I still have it.
36:58I still have it.
36:59I still have it.
37:00I still have it.
37:01I still have it.
37:02I still have it.
37:03I still have it.
37:04I still have it.
37:09One block up from where I lived,
37:11the wreckage of trucks and cars were sitting.
37:17Each one was like a little shrine.
38:04The man with the hat.
38:35I don't know.
38:36I don't know.
38:37I don't know.
38:38I don't know.
39:05We're feeding all the workers,
39:07the cops, everybody.
39:09Well over 1,000 hamburgers, hot dogs,
39:12ribs, chicken,
39:14anybody that's coming by, we're feeding.
39:22Okay, here you are.
39:23All right, thank you.
39:24You want another water?
39:26No, no, no.
39:27All right.
39:29You're welcome.
39:34You guys want some burgers and hot dogs?
39:39Take a burger.
39:40Right here.
39:44Water?
39:45You guys want it?
39:54Mike, take care, buddy.
39:59Thank you, guys.
40:04We didn't have any rain gear.
40:06I didn't have any all day.
40:08Somebody gave me some stuff at the end of the day
40:11to keep dry with.
40:13The firemen in particular were the hardest ones to talk to
40:15because they knew more than any of us who were civilians
40:18how bad it was.
40:2060 and 80 foot steel beams that,
40:23they're like missiles.
40:25They sink 30 and 40 feet into the earth.
40:28It's unbelievable.
40:31It's going to have to be an international set of 10 commandments
40:34by which if you break it and your head comes up,
40:38then you'll lose it.
40:40And this is the rules that all of us are going to have to live by.
40:44We're going to end up being one world
40:47or we're going to fucking go down.
40:49We're going to go down.
40:54At some point I was interested in seeing this through eyes of children.
40:59I think they really wear everything right there on their faces.
41:03What does this one do?
41:05This one goes here.
41:07And there was a young man, young boy, and his father,
41:12so I asked them if they wanted to comment on what's going on
41:15or would they care to say anything.
41:17I think it's really horrible, you know,
41:20that thousands of people just ended, you know, suddenly ended,
41:25and that fuels anger and hatred,
41:28and, you know, I'm about to cry now,
41:32but I'm just, you know, very sad and angry that this happened
41:36and so many people had to die, you know.
41:39They didn't have to die, right?
41:41They didn't have to die. I mean, there's no need for this.
41:44When he started talking, I was very surprised
41:47how fluent he was and how well-spoken he was,
41:50and I knew when I was filming it that I was filming something special.
41:54You can just, like, you know, say goodbye to the world
41:57because one nuke gets fired,
41:59then everybody else breaks the nuclear treaties,
42:01and then, you know, it's like a quote from Albert Einstein
42:05who, you know, was talking about, you know,
42:08what I used to say to my old friends about how humans will destroy.
42:12He said the First World War was fought in the trenches.
42:15The Second World War was fought in the air.
42:17I don't know how the Third World War will be fought,
42:19but the Fourth World War will be fought
42:21using stones, clubs, and bows and arrows,
42:24just saying how, you know, we'll probably, you know, just, you know.
42:28It's very scary to think nukes in the wrong hands,
42:31like Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein, you know.
42:34It's just very scary.
42:40Just community board members and officials,
42:43the people with pertinent information over here.
42:46There was a community meeting of residents that I had to attend,
42:49and since I was attending it, I shot that.
42:52We're going to give you information of what we can,
42:55and then we're going to break up into groups.
42:58There'll be plenty of time.
43:00When I was leaving, there was a small parade of young people
43:05who were volunteering in an organization
43:08that was involved with cleaning up.
43:11¶¶
43:20Everybody had been through a tremendously traumatizing event,
43:24and they had very strong feelings and opinions,
43:28and they needed to express them.
43:30And so all kinds of things were happening,
43:32and one of the first things I saw was this parade.
43:35Maybe that was the beginning
43:37when people decided they were ready to live again.
43:41¶¶
43:51Yeah, help yourself, as many as you want.
43:53Yeah, take as many as you want.
43:55Don't worry about it, just take as many as you want.
43:57Yeah, yeah, take as many as you need.
43:59Are you kidding me? Take the whole box.
44:01Yeah, you take the whole box, come on.
44:03You guys are doing an incredible job.
44:05I came and got some, and I went back to the precinct
44:09That's so cool, our ribbons are, like, at the precinct.
44:12How great is that?
44:14Everybody went nuts.
44:15They're made by the Columbia Business School.
44:17Yeah, Columbia Business School.
44:19You take the Columbia Business School, absolutely.
44:21All right, thanks, guys.
44:22No problem, keep up the good work.
44:24I've never felt like I've loved the city so much as, like,
44:27when you see it start falling apart.
44:30¶¶
44:37¶¶
44:47¶¶
44:55On Monday, I took my video camera,
44:58and I went to the Wall Street area.
45:00¶¶
45:10I believe we should go back to work,
45:12even though today nobody's really doing much business.
45:14Everybody's just really trying to get back to the way things were.
45:18Like, right now, the business is dead.
45:20There's no phone, so it's kind of hard.
45:22¶¶
45:28Military people clearly had their instructions.
45:32They weren't going to let anybody through, and they didn't.
45:36And nobody even tried to get through.
45:38Can I get through?
45:40Come on, come on.
45:41Oh, I'm sorry.
45:42Sorry, I'm sorry.
45:44This block is packed!
45:46We need you to move on!
45:47Start with the camera!
45:48I asked you to move on!
45:49We asked you to move on!
45:51That military presence on the Wall Street area was very threatening.
45:55I didn't feel reassured at all.
45:59In your hometown, having military, you know, guarding streets,
46:04and preventing you from walking freely to where you're going,
46:07very scary.
46:09¶¶
46:19I want to beg you, I want to plead with you all
46:21and ask you to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior.
46:24I want to ask you to bow down and ask him to save you.
46:34The smell was everywhere.
46:39You could probably scoop it with a spoon.
46:41It was so thick.
46:54¶¶
47:04In the distance, I could see my apartment building still standing.
47:08We weren't sure if it was damaged or if it had burned.
47:13Nobody knew.
47:15Do you see any blown windows?
47:17I think we're okay.
47:19I was able to go back to my apartment for a few minutes.
47:25That is the remains of the Trade Center.
47:31These great towers still smoldering just right outside my living room.
47:44I was standing virtually in the same spot that I was shooting from
47:50that morning of September 11th.
47:52That shell is all that's left.
47:54That fire burned for weeks and weeks and weeks.
48:01This apartment building right over here,
48:03a lot of people have vacated already and aren't ever coming back.
48:08I struggle with the idea of staying just four blocks from, you know,
48:14one of the world's greatest disasters.
48:22But it's my home.
48:24I can't turn my back on New York.
48:38In a crazy way, I think 9-11 enhanced all the good qualities
48:43of New Yorkers and New York.
48:49There was a loo for every day.
48:51It was almost a change that was so visible.
48:58As horrible and as awful as it was,
49:00you could look at a stranger in the eye and know
49:02you were feeling the same pain, the same anguish that you were.
49:06And there's something pretty amazing about that.
49:08I don't think I could live anyplace else.
49:10I mean, even after all this happening,
49:12I don't think I'd want to live anywhere else but here.
49:21MUSIC PLAYS
49:51.