Universal Stories to Educate, Inspire and Connect

The stories captured in our film library inspire us and stimulate meaningful discussions and lessons that explore how resilience, gratitude, empathy, and caring for others can emerge from life’s greatest challenges. Through PROJECT REBIRTH'S films, the viewer witnesses history through the strength of the human spirit over the years, and learns how individuals can recover and thrive in the aftermath of tragedy and challenge.

PROJECT REBIRTH makes its closed-captioned films and content available to educators, community leaders and organizations to share lessons of human strength and resilience in the years following the 9/11 attacks. For both those who lived through 9/11 and those who were not born by that day, they provide a unique resource to better understand New York's recovery from the attacks and the strength of its community, through the stories told by the nine people whose faces you see.


PROJECT REBIRTH began filming New York's recovery from 9/11 six months after the attacks, with motion picture cameras mounted around ground zero and with camera crews following a group of nine people directly affected by the attacks.

Photo: Luca Bravo

Photo: Luca Bravo

In 2011 the documentary Rebirth premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. This Peabody award-winning film captures the eight-year journeys of New Yorkers whose lives were forever changed as a result of the September 11th attacks. 

Our nine short films tell the stories of the of the nine people whose faces we see here.

PROJECT REBIRTH'S films chronicle New York's recovery from the 9/11 attacks and the strength of the human spirit coping with disaster. Each of our film participants tell a universal story of the ways shock, grief, anger, and confusion can be transformed into hope, connection, purpose, and renewal. The films facilitate lessons of personal and community resilience, and we offer them in support of First Responders, Military & Veterans, Educators, and Community Leaders.