9/11 (2002)

In 2001, French documentary filmmakers, brothers Gedeon Naudet and Jules Naudet, partnered with New York City firefighter and aspiring filmmaker James Hanlon to embark on the production of a film documenting the rite of passage of the nine month probationary period of a New York City firefighter, the subject they choosing being eager twenty-two year old Tony Benatatos, who worked out of Engine 7/Ladder 1/Battalion 1, the firehouse closest to the World Trade Center. The nature of their collective lives, including that of the documentary, changed on September 11, 2001 with the terrorist attacks on, among other places, the World Trade Center. Out of circumstance, the Naudets' cameras still rolling that day, ended up capturing two up close but very different perspectives of the firefighters' work primarily for the key two hour period following the first attack. While Gedeon, largely on foot, traveled between the firehouse and as close as he could get to the World Trade Center capturing the reactions of Joe and Jane Public on the street as well as the preparation of those firefighters not scheduled to work that day that came in to do their part, Jules ending up being able to shadow the firehouse's chief, Captain Joseph Pfeifer, who had set up command in the lobby of WTC1, the first tower hit. While that lobby perspective ended up being intimate to the goings-on of the work, it was also very narrow in that those in the lobby had little idea what was going on in the bigger picture of the attack. Many of the firefighters part of that lobby command and Jules himself were still there when WTC2 collapsed - the second tower hit but the first to fall - leading to the question of their fates. The other question commonly asked of that day: what happened to Benatatos, who would have been thrown into the proverbial big boys' league, he whose whereabouts during that two hours was largely unknown to his comrades based out of that house until after the fact.