The September 11 Attacks - Evan Fairbanks' footage (editor's cut)

This video contains the files « Evan Fairbanks 01.avi » to « Evan Fairbanks 13.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.Show more

Videographer: Evan Fairbanks
Locations: South-eastern corner of the World Trade Center, Manhattan, NY
Time: Approx 08h50 - 10h00:11 a.m. & 04h58:55 - 05h05:01 p.m. EDT, September 11, 2001.

Evan Fairbanks had the questionable 'privilege' of being a person of interest for law enforcement officers because of some footage which he had on tape. They wanted a dub. This allowed him to shoot footage at places where other journalist had been banned from, and to document some valuable details.

00:16 »» Evan Fairbanks' footage; approx 08h50 a.m. - ~10h00:11 a.m. EDT

»» 00:16 »» From Trinity Bridge across Trinity Place at Trinity Church;

»» 01:45 »» Walking Trinity Place north from Trinity Bridge via Thames to Cedar Street;

»» 04:28 »» Trinity Place between Cedar and Liberty Street;

»» 05:01 »» Around the southwestern corner of Trinity Place and Liberty Street;

»» 06:58 »» South Tower got hit @ 09h03:00 a.m. ETD;

»» 09:23 »» Remaining civilians get chased away by Police;

»» 09:56 »» Walking down to the FDNY Ten House at Liberty & Greenwich Street;

»» 11:53 »» With law enforcement officers under the concrete overhand at the entrance of the Deutsche Bank Building (formerly Bankers Trust Plaza) at 130 Liberty Street, between Greenwich & Washington Street;

»» 14:48 »» Police asked Evan Fairbanks to film an allegedly "suspicious" male near the entrance of building 4 WTC, who actually had a press pass, but was ordered to leave anyway;

»» 15:20 »» Back at the FDNY Ten House;

»» 17:44 »» Concourse level under building 5 WTC (after a walk with police officers across Liberty Street and the concourse level under building 4 WTC) - most people who were evacuating the twin towers had been directed via the underground concourse level to protect them from falling debris;

»» 19:02 »» Inside the Port Authority Police Desk in building 5 WTC;

»» 20:20 »» Exiting building 5 WTC at Church & Fulton Street;

»» 21:31 »» Collapse of the South Tower as seen from Church & Fulton Street;

»» 21:50 »» Church & Barclay Street, running north on Church Street;

22:45 »» Evan Fairbanks interviewed by Peter Jennings in the studio, ABC News live broadcast; 04h58:55 - 05h05:01 p.m. EDT; September 11, 2001.

The audio is completely missing and replaced by electronic noise on most files provided by NIST. I recovered and adjusted a portion of the audio track of about 6 minutes from a redacted clip provided by the FBI 604_WTCI_454_I.mp4, and I reduced the noise level by 15 dB for viewers comfort.

The two Port Authority Police Officers, Detective Fitzgerald and Detective Wheeler, who wanted to obtain a dub of the footage, never got this, since they were separated from Mr. Fairbanks during the dusty darkness after the collapse. However, in their written Personal Statement to the FBI they mention briefly: "The FBI did learn about and view the video that Evan Fairbanks had." The redacted FBI clip, which is publicly available, is evidence of that.

I refrain from digital image manipulation. In my opinion, any so-called 'enhancement', as observed in similar video creations elsewhere, is tampering with evidence. I consider this video document as material evidence in the disaster investigation. My objective is to use as much raw footage as ever available for a highly authentic document, and to avoid edited material if possible. I also conserved artifacts 'as is', and the FOIA patches which I may use may have encountered earlier compression losses.
However, I adapted all footage to NTSC standard (SD), doubled the frame rate to 59.94 fps (60000/1001), and tried to restore the audio. Though working with mostly uncompressed footage, this online version is presented in the HEVC/H.265 video compression format.

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 (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.