Survivors from Ground Zero tell their stories of 9/11 in the restrained but powerful documentary “Rebirth.”
The scale of 9/11 is so vast that director Jim Whitaker chooses to focus on interviews with only five people who either lost loved ones or were present during the attack or both.
Interviewed at intervals over the entire 10-year period, each of them is seen against a black background giving riveting testimony. Interspersed with these interviews are family photographs and film of them going about their lives as they try to move forward. But all of them keep getting pulled back to 9/11 in some way.
A firefighter says he wishes he had been there with his best friend when the latter died in one of the towers. A young man who lost his mother and became estranged from his father speaks of his anger and bitterness. A woman who was on the 78th floor and was knocked unconscious by the impact struggles to recover from her burns, which scarred her face and impaired the use of her arms. Meanwhile, the slow but thrilling redevelopment of Ground Zero is captured by Whitaker’s time-lapse cameras, which were placed at the site starting six months after Sept. 11.
A bit more context about some of the topics the witnesses discuss would have been welcome, but Whitaker’s stark, unshowy style is probably the most effective way to approach 9/11. This film, which airs on Showtime on Sept. 11 and will be archived at the Ground Zero museum, is a vital document.