Jim Whitaker's 'Project Rebirth' film helps survivors cope with 9/11
Monday, September 8th 2008, 4:00 AM
A year after a Brooklyn teen's mom was killed on Sept. 11, 2001, he told about a stunning moment when a sparrow landed on his head as he spoke her name at a memorial service.
"It let me pick it up," the teen explains, his green eyes staring into the camera in a closeup from a searing documentary.
"It looked at me and flew away. I'm not a religious person. But there's no doubt in my mind that was my mom in there!"
In "Project Rebirth," a film due out in 2010, the teen and nine other people whose lives were forever changed when two hijacked planes struck the twin towers pour out their hearts to Hollywood producer Jim Whitaker.
Whitaker, whose credits include "American Gangster," set up cameras right after the terror attack - taking shots of Ground Zero every five minutes. He then turned his lens tenderly toward the human toll, and has interviewed his subjects every Sept. 11 since the attacks.
This Thursday will mark Whitaker's final round of interviews.
The Daily News was given an exclusive screening of "Project Rebirth" excerpts on the condition the participants not be named.
In it, a Queens woman recounts the call from a firefighter at her fiancé's fire company, saying he'd be by with food.
"I told him the only reason a firefighter is going to come over to your house is to tell me Sergio is dead," she recalls. "No, he says, we just want to bring you some food. They came with trays and trays. I felt so bad."
The film is not about healing as much as it is about coping, said Whitaker, the film's director, and Brian Rafferty, his partner.
In addition to a commercial release, the filmmakers will share the footage with the NYPD, the FDNY and other agencies.
They are hoping to help first responders and victims face their grief, develop a curriculum for middle and high school students, and create an installation at the 9/11 memorial museum.
"The process and challenge of grief, how hard that is: That is what the film is really trying to capture," Whitaker said.
Bill Keegan, a Port Authority Police lieutenant who helped lead the rescue and recovery effort, said the film was so painful, he almost "walked out" of a viewing.
"People are going to be able to plug into it," he said. "As you talk about it, you get to gain some control over it. That is what this film will do for people."