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The Outsider
Director:
Steven Rosenbaum...
Genres:
Documentary
Actors:
Michael Shulan, Alice Greenwald, Lou Mendes...
Release:
2021
Duration:
83min
Origin:
US
Story:
Michael Shulan was a struggling novelist and owner of a storefront space in New York’s trendy
Soho neighborhood. The attacks on the World Trade Center changed his life forever. He turned
his Prince Street space into a now famous crowdsourced photo exhibit called “here Is new york:
a democracy of photographs” Over the course of five years, he became known as one of the
world's leading experts on 9/11 photography. Then, the lifelong outsider was invited to be part
of something big. Shulan was named the Creative Director of the National 9/11 Museum at
Ground Zero.
This is the story of his dream job and how it turned against him. His vision of an open, inclusive,
participatory place for America to engage in the painful, personal story of 9/11 goes wrong. His
role as creative leader turns into a daily battle to keep his vision alive. As Shulan explains it “I
joined the Museum to create a story with open questions, but time and time again, my sentences
had the question marked replaced with periods.” His nemesis is Alice Greenwald, the Museum’s
director - who hires him, and then turns the museum's open philosophy into a place that looks
to put to rest the unanswered questions of 9/11.
Rosenbaum, Yoder, and their documentary team had unlimited access to the site, and to private
internal meetings never before revealed. The conflicts around the museum's curatorial process
reflect the complicated feelings Americans have about 9/11 today. Being a fly on the wall as the
WTC story is written provides a gripping journey into a piece of American history that is both
unsettled and unsettling.