7l West Broadway, Ground Zero, N.Y.

A film by Beverly Peterson

Like thousands of New Yorkers who live downtown, the filmmaker Beverly Peterson witnessed close-up the horrific events of 9/11. Her first instinct was to grab her video camera in order to bear witness to the tragedy unfolding. Filming became a way of surviving the following months as she documented what was happening to her community.

Beverly and her husband were forced to evacuate their apartment on West Broadway for several weeks. Then the hard work of cleaning up began. Some businesses in the neighborhood had been forced to close, others limped along, helping each other survive. Many were owned by recent immigrants to N.Y.C. who are featured in the film. The community was forced to organize to demand financial assistance from the government for the cleaning and rehabilitation of individual residences and businesses. They are still rebuilding their lives thanks to their strenuous efforts to help themselves and each other.

Wisconsin International Film Festival, 2002
Women With Vision, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 2002
Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, 2002
Reel New York, Thirteen/WNET (PBS) in New York

20 min. Video or DVD. Sale $195. Video rental $50.

" … this poignant documentary …gives a valuable record of how the attacks on the World Trade Center affected Lower Manhattan and its inhabitants." School Library Journal