7 Days in September starts streaming free on Tubi as 9/11 archive heads to NYPL

Steven Rosenbaum’s documentary 7 Days in September is now free on Tubi for the 25th anniversary of Sept. 11. The release comes as the film’s original 35mm print and source footage enter The New York Public Library’s permanent collection, with a larger 9/11 archive slated for public access in the coming years.

Why it matters: - 7 Days in September offers a ground-level record of New York City in the first week after the Sept. 11 attacks. - The film’s free streaming debut on Tubi makes a widely praised 9/11 documentary easier to access for new viewers and for people revisiting the event. - The preservation of the film’s original materials at The New York Public Library helps secure a major first-person record of 9/11 for researchers, educators and future audiences.

What happened: - Twenty-five years after Sept. 11, 7 Days in September began streaming free on Tubi. - Steven Rosenbaum directed the film, which captures New York City from the morning of Sept. 11 through the following seven days. - The documentary was built from the work of 27 filmmakers, including professional crews and New Yorkers filming the city themselves. - Tubi will stream the film free on its website and apps. - Rosenbaum and filmmaker Pamela Yoder also released more than two hours of previously unseen raw footage from the night of 9/11 on YouTube. More information

The details: - The footage begins in lower Manhattan as early as 10:05 a.m. on Sept. 11. - The film shows dust-covered streets around Ground Zero, the disappearing skyline, firefighters and police working through the night, memorials, missing-person flyers, blood drives and families waiting for news. - The documentary also centers quieter moments, including a firefighter’s wife waiting for news, a Muslim American New Yorker facing fear and suspicion, and an 11-year-old boy trying to understand the city around him. - The film was first released in 2002 and avoided narration, political argument and hindsight. - It has a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score. - The documentary received a CINE Golden Eagle and a Telly Award. - Tubi describes the film as “an emotional 9/11 street-level chronicle” told through first-person footage from 27 New Yorkers.

Between the lines: - The film’s staying power comes from its restraint. It lets people on the street describe what they saw and felt instead of imposing a later interpretation. - That approach gives the documentary value both as a historical record and as a human account of a moment when the country was still absorbing what had happened. - The archive donation suggests a broader push to preserve not just the finished film, but the raw footage behind it.

What's next: - The New York Public Library expects to make the 1,200-hour CameraPlanet 9/11 video archive publicly accessible in 2027 at its research centers. - A complete online release is targeted for 2030. - The archive includes more than 1,200 hours of video shot by more than 130 New Yorkers and covers Sept. 11, its immediate aftermath and the development of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. - The collection includes the original 35mm print of 7 Days in September and the footage from which the film was made. - Rosenbaum and Yoder donated the CameraPlanet Archive to The New York Public Library in 2025.

The bottom line: - 7 Days in September is getting a new audience on Tubi just as the source material behind the documentary is being preserved for the long term.