The September 11 Attacks - Steven Spak's footage (editor's cut)

This video contains the files « WTC 7 part1 clip26.avi » to WTC 7 part1 clip84.avi », which have been released to the public by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). I added additional footage which was released through NIST FOIA #09-42 request, and which is not available on NIST's cloud server.

Videographer: Steven Spak
Locations: West Street & Vesey Street and West Broadway between Park Place and Barclay Street, Manhattan, NY
Time: Between approx 12h00 p.m. - 02h30 p.m. EDT, September 11, 2001.

Steven Spak has been documenting the work of the FDNY firefighters in the early afternoon of September 11, 2001 in the area of 6 WTC and 7 WTC.

»» 00:16 »» West Street & Vesey Street starting at about 12h00 p.m. EDT;
»» 33:00 »» West Broadway between Park Place and Barclay Street starting shortly after 2h00 p.m. EDT;

Exclusively for this video, I have made an exception from my general policy of refraining from digital image manipulation. Mr. Spak had been shooting on Super 8 mm film, and the digital scan is provided to the public in rather poor quality. Since this video also is a tribute to the firefighters, I believe that these men deserved better. And so deserve viewers. Therefore, I was adjusting, actually restoring the colors in order the produce the most realistic pictures in this dusty, grey-in-grey environment. I abandoned this endeavor in the beginning and the end of the footage for about three minutes, and believed that black and white pictures would provide the best possible viewing experience. After all, I tried to create a kind of vintage video, preserving the character of the Super 8 mm film.

Times have been estimated based on the cast of the shadows, and on identified screenshots included in the document « NIST NCSTAR 1-9 Structural Fire Response and Probable Collapse Sequence of World Trade Center Building 7 » (Natl. Inst. Stand. Technol. Natl. Constr. Sfty. Tm. Act Rpt. 1-9, 796 pages (November 2008), CODEN: NSPUE2).

This video has been created for exclusively educational, non-profit purposes. The usage of commercial footage shall be regarded under the conditions of 17 U.S. Code § 17 / 17 U.S. Code § 512 (f) (Fair use).
Dedicated to the lives lost on September 11, 2001, and in the aftermath of that day. May they rest in Peace.
Thank you for taking the time to inform yourself.