Andover Fire Department posed for a picture with Jules and Gédéon Naudet.
On Friday, Phillips Academy welcomed French-American filmmakers Jules and Gédéon Naudet, along with the firefighters of the Andover Fire Department, for a special screening of their 9/11 documentary. What began as a quiet project capturing the life of a rookie firefighter quickly turned into a front-row lens on history recording raw humanity, resilience, and heroism. Now, over two decades later, Jules and Naudet have come to retell their experience, leaving a lasting impression on Andover students.
When Jules and Gédéon Naudet set out to film the daily life of a young New York City firefighter, they never imagined their lens would become one of the only cameras inside the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Gedeon Naudet spoke about how a quiet, overlooked documentary about brotherhood and bravery in the firehouse transformed into a historic, firsthand account of unimaginable tragedy and unshakable courage.
“When September 11 happened, the documentary, which was supposed to show how a young rookie firefighter becomes a man in nine months, suddenly became an intense story. Here we ended up showing him becoming a man in three hours. The documentary we wanted to do was the same. We wanted to show the courage of firefighters, to show that sense of family, to show that brotherhood. We never expected to capture [a documentary] in such a way that it was going to be watched by everyone in such a glaring example of their heroism,” shared Naudet.
As the first plane crashed into the North Tower, Naudet lifted his camera almost by instinct, capturing a moment that was both disorienting and unforgettable. The camera became both a mental shield and responsibility, one that tasked him with recording history.
“I remember when I filmed the first plane that crashed into the North Tower, I felt very nervous. I realized the loss of life was quite profound, not only in the plane, but in the tower. When I entered the World Trade Center, as far as I knew, I was safe. I’m in the lobby, the floors on fire are around the 86th floor, and I’m surrounded by hundreds of firefighters that look a little bit like the Avengers,” remarked Naudet.
Andover student Bruce Ru ’28 had the honor of accompanying the brothers on a tour of the campus ahead of the screening, sharing a meal with them as they discussed their work. Though he had previous knowledge of the 9/11 incident, the documentary evoked emotions within him unlike any text accounts before.
“We will never be able to pay a full homage to the bravery and courage that was shown on that day. But that is why the Naudet brothers and their documentary 9/11 are so valuable. They provide a bridge to us as regular people who were there. Their work breaks the barrier of impossibility around an event like 9/11 with such a large cultural influence. Reading about it in a Wikipedia article or textbook is so different from actually being there first person and looking death in the eye,” said Ru.
In the days and weeks after the attacks, the Naudet brothers grappled with how to present the footage they had captured. Faced with many difficult and graphic scenes, they made the deliberate choice to exclude the most distressing images out of respect for the victims and their families. Their intention was not to sensationalize the tragedy, but to highlight the courage and humanity displayed by firefighters and civilians amid the chaos.
“When I entered the North Tower, the moment I came in, there were two people who were burning alive that I saw in the doorway. When the plane crashed into the tower, the jet fuel went down the elevator shaft and created a kind of fireball in the lobby. Unfortunately, these people were caught right there in the lobby and so the jet fuel went on their clothes and they were dying in front of my eyes. It was such a horrible image. I immediately turned the camera to the side to make sure I would not film it. All throughout that day, we censored ourselves. We didn’t want to film all of these horrible things. We were raised with parents who always told us to respect life, but also to respect death,” said Naudet.
The experience of creating the 9/11 documentary has had a profound influence on the Naudet brothers’ subsequent projects. At the heart of their filmmaking is a persistent search for humanity in every story they tell. Whether exploring political figures or historical events like their documentary January 6 that recorded Trump supporters rioting outside the U.S. capital, they strive to reveal the personal, human side beneath the public personas. Their work consistently seeks to break down barriers between viewers and subjects, highlighting universal emotions like doubt, joy, and fear.
“What we always love is to show that humanity. To find a human connection between the audience and someone almost improbable. What do we know of, what do we have in common with people like the president of the United States or the director of the CIA. We’re all blinded by either a uniform or the title that these people have. But the best way to breach that is to realize and make a connection that shows the audience under the uniform and the title. There’s a human being. All of our programs do that and it is the link that comes from our original documentary,” said Naudet.
