Movie Screening: 9/11 - Reclaiming Ground Zero

As we mark 25 years since 9/11, join us for a free film screening and a community reflection on civic engagement and direct democracy.
About this Event

We invite the University Settlement community to join us for a special event - an opportunity to reflect on the ways the city came together in crisis, and the powerful ways civic engagement and direct democracy helped build community while guiding redevelopment efforts downtown.

We'll screen the documentary 9/11: RECLAIMING GROUND ZERO. Please find a more complete summary of the film below.
After the screening, we'll convene a healing circle-style conversation where attendees will have the opportunity to respond to the film and reflect on their personal experiences and civic engagement.
This conversation will be facililtated by:

• Barbara DiGangi (Director, Community Wellness Initiatives, University Settlement), with support from:
• Dave Hughes (Director, Communications, University Settlement)
  
  More information about 9/11: RECLAIMING GROUND ZERO
  After the 9/11 attacks, once the smoke cleared and the rubble was removed, New Yorkers faced a fundamental question: who gets to decide the future of Ground Zero? Some wanted the towers back, while others believed the site should remain a memorial. So the city decided to do something unprecedented. They gathered 5,000 representative New Yorkers into the largest town hall in American history: "Listening to the City," held in 2002. People expected chaos, yelling, maybe even a fistfight. But what happened was democracy. And guess what? It was beautiful.
  9/11: RECLAIMING GROUND ZERO (2026, Directed by Josh Sabey) revisits one of the most ambitious experiments in participatory democracy in modern American history and asks what it can teach us about rebuilding public trust today.
  Content Advisory: The film contains intense footage of the events of 9/11. Participants who are sensitive to this footage may wish to step outside for the first 8 minutes of the screening.