By Jane Gottlieb | Photos by Kyran M. John
One morning last August, New York Public Library conservators visited Pamela Yoder’s Manhattan apartment to
collect hundreds of video cassettes. Shopkeepers, office workers, and EMTs had all
shared what happened when terrorists attacked the World Trade Center, as did Muslim
Americans, children, and survivors.
“The tapes had been in my closet for 25 years, and a load was lifted when they carted them away,” says Yoder, a documentary filmmaker.
In all, she and her husband, Steven Rosenbaum, donated over 700 hours of footage to the library, which will make them public without imposing a narrative.
“We want our children and our children’s children to see what happened and make up their own minds,” she says.
Unveiling Stories
"When we looked at the video, we saw that the stories were not as diverse as the city is, so we put an ad in The Village Voice."
Yoder and Rosenbaum owned a thriving production company that over 40 years, won Emmy Awards for television work and first-person documentaries. They were working for CNN and other outlets on September 11, 2001, when the planes hit the towers. They deployed their crews to the disaster zone.
“When we looked at the video, we saw that the stories were not as diverse as the city
is, so we put an ad in The Village Voice asking people to share footage,” Yoder says.
Dozens of people shared 500 hours of footage, from mangled cars and smoke-choked streets, to public vigils and tearful appeals to find lost loved ones. They narrowed down the trove to create “7 Days in September,” personal stories on the disaster.
Planners of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum then requested the video archive. The couple consented, in return for full access to the creation process. The result was “The Outsider,” a 2021 documentary reflecting philosophical differences on the museum’s mission.
“When we started editing, it emerged they hadn’t built the place to ask questions,” Yoder says. “They wanted it limited to heroes running in to save the day.”
The museum requested removal of 36 scenes they said included distortions. The filmmakers, however, released “The Outsider” in its entirety – and sought an impartial repository for their archive.
Her Third Act
Yoder is now senior program director at the Hamilton Older Adult Center in Manhattan.
She earned a B.S. in human development at Empire State University, then a master’s
in gerontology at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
“Empire State is built for people like me, who wanted a third act,” she says. “None of us is one person.”
Now, with the untold stories from September 11 in safe hands, she can move on from that day 25 years ago.
“Each person filmed had a little piece of the story,” Yoder says. “If we didn’t do something, the stories would have died.”
Photos by Kyran John