9/11: TEN YEARS GONE

This morning marked the tenth anniversary of the 2001 September 11th attacks on the United States. Ten years ago I was working at my old record store and had already left the house before anything had began. Shortly after arriving, my mom called to inform me that a plane had hit the Twin Towers. A few minutes later she would call back to say that another plane had hit. An hour later customers began to say one of the towers had collapsed. I called my mom for confirmation and she answered "they're both down now."

The narrative of 9/11 as delivered to the rest of the nation has been a compartmentalized and simplified version, one that far to many politicians and "filmmakers" have used to further their own agendas. Protesters from all ends of the spectrum and all corners of our country come here and shout their views from the sidewalks of Ground Zero. Images of the towers burning are shown in every documentary and every newsbite, from every angle and every slow-mo speed technology will allow.

But many people from this area lived those moments, whether from the streets below or from inside the actual towers. It's important to remember that they have a very specific and personal relationship with 9/11. It's one thing to see the morning's CNN news ticker reporting terrorism threats and quite another to drop down into the subway to head to work only a few moments later. New Yorkers live 9/11 everyday in a very real way. It doesn't make people from this city any better than the rest of the nation, but it does make them different.

For me, there is no better account of 9/11 and NYC as Steve Rosenbaum's 7 Days In September. It captures the heart of this areas people. One IMDB reviewer states "if you['re looking] for big drama shoots, you may be deceived. In addition, the terrible day counts for maybe one third of the time, the remaining addressing the later days. Finally, you don't see much but you hear a lot."

Rosenbaum forfeits scenes of destruction for scenes of humanity. 7 Days In September documents the people of NY in the moments after the attacks, from the everyday heros helping a stranger to safety to the triage stations setup along the Westside Highway to the candle light vigils in Union Square. It's NYC at its best and it's a film that transcends it's counterparts. There should be more films like it.

Also recommended is HERE IS NEW YORK: A Democracy of Photographs. "Anyone and everyone who has taken pictures relating to the tragedy was invited to submit their images to the gallery, where they were digitally scanned, printed and displayed on the walls alongside the work of top photojournalists and other professional photographers. All of the prints which HERE IS NEW YORK displayed were sold to the public for $25, regardless of their provenance. The net proceeds from the sale of these prints went to the Children's Aid Society WTC Relief Fund." The project has since raised over $850,000. While the gallery has since closed, the project continues through the group's online gallery and now out of print book.

A friend of mine recently worked on the documentary Rising: Rebuilding Ground Zero. The film captures the decade long process of bringing life back to the area where the Twin Towers once stood. The series is a first hand look at much work and attention has been paid to ensure that the victims and families effected by 9/11 have a memorial befitting their sacrifice.

Today, Paul Simon performed at the new 9/11 Memorial built upon former footprint of the Twin Towers. While scheduled to perform "Bridge Over Troubled Water" Simon instead chose to sing "The Sounds of Silence" acknowledging that while 9/11 is ten years gone, the pain and sorrow of that day is still very fresh.