The FDNY premiered two new documentaries at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum on Wednesday, marking the department's latest effort to confront a health crisis that has now killed more firefighters and EMTs than the attacks themselves. The films, titled Remembering Judge and Resilience, will also screen together for the public on September 6 and September 11 at a converted firehouse in Chinatown, with a single ticket covering both.
According to the FDNY, Remembering Judge tells the story of FDNY Chaplain Father Mychal Judge, who is remembered for a life of service, faith, compassion and leadership. Judge was designated 9/11 Victim 0001, and as Britannica notes, he holds that designation because his body was the first recovered from Ground Zero and brought to the medical examiner after he died from falling debris in the South Tower lobby while administering last rites. The second film, Resilience, follows FDNY members who responded on September 11, 2001 and survived, focusing on those who aided the World Trade Center cleanup and now continue to face lasting impacts of World Trade Center-related illnesses.
Twenty-five years later, September 11th is still with us.
— FDNY (@FDNY) August 27, 2026
On Wednesday at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, the FDNY premiered two films that remember those we lost, honor those who served, and tell the stories of the members who continue to live with the lasting impacts of their… pic.twitter.com/ezEoePyiXs
Both films were made possible through support from the FDNY Foundation and FDNY Pro Films, with proceeds from the public screenings supporting the Foundation's lifesaving mission. Founded in 1981, the FDNY Foundation is the department's official nonprofit, funding public safety outreach, specialized training, and equipment beyond what the city budget covers.
A Toll That Now Exceeds the Attacks Themselves
Resilience arrives as the numbers behind its subject matter have grown grim. As of late 2025, more than 400 FDNY firefighters and EMTs have died from World Trade Center-related illnesses, surpassing the 343 members killed on September 11, 2001, and pushing total 9/11-related department fatalities past 743, according to a report cited by WABC. That climbing toll is why, last September, the FDNY added 39 names of members who died from 9/11-related illnesses over the preceding year to its World Trade Center Memorial Wall at MetroTech Center in Brooklyn, following 32 additions the year before, as reported by KFF Health News. Hoodline covered that ceremony in a piece on the 39 names added to the memorial.
The illnesses trace back to what scientists and air pollution experts have identified in the Ground Zero dust plume: more than 2,500 contaminants, including 352 chemical agents such as pulverized asbestos, lead, mercury, crystalline silica, and 24,000 gallons of burning jet fuel, per the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. That toxic exposure has fed a public health response that keeps expanding a quarter-century later. As of mid-2026, more than 136,000 first responders and survivors are enrolled in the federal World Trade Center Health Program, with over 81,000 certified for at least one physical or mental health condition linked to the exposure.
Compensation Claims Keep Climbing
The financial dimension of the crisis has grown alongside it. The federal September 11th Victim Compensation Fund paid nearly $1.84 billion to roughly 9,800 claimants in 2025 alone, pushing total cumulative compensation past $16.8 billion awarded to over 71,000 claimants since 2011, with new claims arriving at a rate of roughly 900 per month by late last year. Hoodline recently detailed how that system has intersected with individual cases in its report on a Ground Zero fuel tanker driver's cancer fight.
Not every part of the September 11 story has been resolved, either. As of September 2025, approximately 1,100 victims of the attacks — about 40% of those killed at the World Trade Center site — remain unmapped to positive DNA identifications by the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner, per the same KFF Health News account, as medical examiners continue testing recovered bone fragments with newer DNA technology.
Why a Former Firehouse Was Chosen as the Venue
The public screenings' setting carries its own local history. DCTV's Firehouse Cinema, where Remembering Judge and Resilience will show together on September 6 and September 11, sits inside Manhattan's landmarked former Engine Company 31 firehouse, a French Renaissance-style building constructed in 1895 that was converted into a 67-seat documentary theater in September 2022, according to Hyperallergic. The lobby is built from repurposed wooden planks salvaged from the firehouse's original 19th-century horse stables, and the concession counter is built into the cab of a decommissioned vintage fire engine, per the same outlet's reporting.
Placing FDNY-backed films about firefighting loss and survival inside a former Chinatown firehouse creates a direct link between the department's documentary project and its own history. The pairing underscores a crisis that, as Hoodline has reported in pieces on legal fights over toxin records and on union pushback in a report on secret 9/11 toxin documents, remains far from settled a quarter-century after the attacks. FDNY members continuing to search for the fallen after September 11, 2001, and those still living with the consequences of that response, are the throughline connecting both new films. The department can be reached through its official channels at 911 for emergencies or 311 for non-emergency matters, though its social media accounts are not monitored around the clock.
-4.webp?w=160&h=400&fit=crop&crop=edges)
