# Iván Acosta Cuban filmmaker recounts what he saw on 9/11

**Date:** 09/09/2021

From the balcony of his home, Cuban filmmaker Iván Acosta witnessed and recorded what happened to the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001 and images of the streets of New York in the days that followed, which he converted into the documentary "Behind My Eyes," which the New York Public Library presented on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

"Behind My Eyes" is narrated in the first person from the point of view of a witness to what happened that day, and in Spanish because Acosta dedicates it to the Latinos who died in the attacks.

All the hours recorded on that date and the days following in the street, the confusion and desperation, the city covered with photos of the missing, remained stored until 2019, when the project started with the help in editing and production from film professor Raúl Barcelona.

"Every time I saw it, it made me sad and I kept putting it off thinking about making a film. The documentary was made with a lot of heart," Acosta told Efe, also a playwright, whose documentary will be presented at some festivals.

Acosta admits that emotionally "it was very difficult" the editing process because he relived what happened when two commercial planes impacted the emblematic towers in New York's financial district, and everything that New Yorkers experienced, particularly the families of the victims.

He says that in his documentary, which features music by Alfredo Triff and Amaury Acosta, he avoided including images of family members crying, clutching photos of their loved ones, because what happened "was something dramatic in itself."

"I tried to make it as neutral as possible both in text, lyrics, and editing," he explained.

The documentary begins recalling that he arrived in New York on December 4, "day of Changó," and having settled in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, in Lower Manhattan, from where he witnessed the impact of the plane on the second tower, the collapse of one of the structures, and how the city filled with smoke, ashes, fear, and the sound of sirens.

He also recalls that that day he was watching the city from his balcony when he received a call from his neighbor informing him that a plane had crashed into one of the towers.

"I run to the balcony again and look south, and from a huge hole in the north tower flames and a lot of black smoke came out," while in the streets around him everything "seemed normal," he indicates in the short film.

"An impulse makes me grab my video camera to capture what seemed like an unusual incident. Looking through the lens, a plane catches my attention as it approaches from the southwest flying over Staten Island, but not for long because suddenly I see a tremendous explosion that goes through the south tower," he points out about the image that "looked like a mushroom from an atomic explosion" and "covered everything."

It also includes one of the most anguishing moments when several people jumped into the void from the inferno that the structures had become, as well as the collapse of one tower.

Four days later, Acosta went out to the street, where he recorded how the place was left in rubble—which later became known as "ground zero"—New Yorkers praying, businesses covered in dust and ashes, and how every space was covered with photos of the missing.

Acosta and Barcelona worked on the documentary, which ends with an image of the fountain in the area where the towers stood with the names of the victims, in 2020 during the crisis caused by the covid-19 pandemic, and they completed it at the end of that year.

The filmmaker points out that he decided to make it in Spanish because in addition to being a tribute to Hispanic victims, "there are 65 million Latinos in the United States and Spanish is the second most spoken language in the world."

"Besides, I'm not doing it from a commercial point of view but from the human perspective of what I felt, what I saw, and I wanted to leave it with this work," he said.

In addition to the festivals, the city's Public Library became interested in showing it on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

"For me it was an honor that the Library, which is such a great institution, would be interested in presenting it, and in Spanish," he noted with satisfaction.