Memory Box: Echoes of 9/11

Several months after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, artist Ruth Sergel built a wooden video booth in which people touched by the events of September 11 could independently - without reporters or filmmakers - record their memories of that day. Hundreds of people recorded their accounts in 2002 and 2003: New Yorkers who were at or near Ground Zero around the time of the attack, first responders, military personnel, Pentagon employees, residents of Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where the fourth hijacked plane went down. They mourn the dead, share their experiences, describe in detail the rescue operation, the evacuation from the twin towers and everything that happened on that fateful day. For many of them, a visit to the "memory box" was a form of therapy. Their memories - often complementary to each other - create a moving, very intimate record of a traumatic day. After nearly twenty years, the creators of the installation reached out to some of these people with a request to face the events of September 11 again and try to assess how that day influenced their lives and how America has changed over the last two decades.