Over 1,000 Hours of 9/11 Footage Donated to New York Public Library

Unprecedented Archive of 9/11 Footage

• 🏛️ A significant collection of over 1,000 hours of 9/11 footage is being donated to the New York Public Library.
• 🎬 This archive captures the faces, voices, and emotions of New Yorkers during and after the September 11th terror attacks.
• 🎥 The footage was gathered by filmmakers who initially intended to shoot a dating show but redirected their cameras after the first plane hit.

Public Contribution and Unseen Material

• 🗣️ Filmmakers also put out a public request, leading to over 12,200 hours of videos and interviews from the public.
• 🖼️ A large portion of this material has never been viewed, even by the creators themselves.
• 💡 The filmmakers released a documentary the year after the attacks, using only a fraction of the collected footage.

Archiving and Future Access

• 📚 The New York Public Library will undertake the extensive task of archiving the material responsibly, balancing privacy concerns with the need to preserve historical record.
• 🧐 Archivists face the challenge of creating safe structures for viewing sensitive content without censorship.
• 🗓️ The archive is expected to open in phases by 2027, initially in the library's reading rooms and later online.

Historical Significance and Understanding

• ⏳ Filmmaker Steven Rosenbomb believes that news is the first draft of history, and we are only now beginning to view 9/11 as a historical event.
• 🌍 The hope is that this footage will contribute to new research, books, and documentaries, offering future generations a deeper understanding of how New Yorkers experienced 9/11.