A filmmaker who grew up attending Brooklyn Elementary School, Roosevelt Junior High and San Diego High is watching his 9/11 documentary open in Times Square this week, timed to a day when a 9/11 meal-packing effort will take place in San Diego. Michael Gier, who was 38 years old and starring in a Los Angeles musical production on the morning of the September 11 attacks, spent four and a half years turning 35 hours of interviews and archival footage into “The Heroism and Resiliency of 9/11: From Tragedy to Triumph,” a two-hour film that premieres theatrically at AMC Empire 25 in Times Square on Tuesday.
The film's path to that premiere runs through an unusual partnership. According to Times of San Diego, executive producer Chris Meek survived the collapse aftermath of the World Trade Center's North and South towers while working at the American Stock Exchange running floor trading for Goldman Sachs on September 11, 2001. Meek approached Gier in early 2022 with an idea for another 9/11 documentary, and the two joined forces on the project that would become “The Heroism and Resiliency of 9/11.” Gier, who moved to Los Angeles in his early twenties after several years as a resident actor at Lamb's Players Theatre and later ran a real estate development company building homes in three states, founded Gier Productions in 2009 and has since built a career as a Hollywood actor, producer, director and documentary filmmaker.
Reenacting Flight 93 and Ground Zero Rescues
To dramatize the day's events, the production incorporated dramatized reenactments, including the rescue of Will Jimeno, according to footage cited on YouTube. The 119-minute film blends firsthand accounts, archival footage and those dramatized reenactments to depict events at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, covering the 9/11 boatlift, the Flight 93 passengers and rescue efforts at the Pentagon. Interview subjects include Andy Card, Jimeno, Leon Panetta, Lee Greenwood and Roger Ferguson, per the Times of San Diego report.
Actor Gary Sinise narrates the film and has said he wanted to be part of it because of its important message. Sinise began touring military installations with his Lieutenant Dan Band in 2003 before establishing the Gary Sinise Foundation in 2011, which has raised more than $300 million to build specially adapted smart homes for catastrophically injured veterans and support first responders, according to the Gary Sinise Foundation. Meek's own charity, SoldierStrong, has donated more than $5.5 million in medical technology to injured veterans since he founded it in 2009 as “SoldierSocks” after troops in Afghanistan requested basic necessities. The organization expanded in 2013 to focus on advanced medical equipment, including robotic exoskeletons, according to SoldierStrong.
Festival Wins and Federal Screenings
Before its theatrical debut, the documentary picked up five best-documentary honors, winning top prizes at the Beaufort International Film Festival, CENFLO, the New York City Independent Film Festival, the London Movie Awards and the New York Movie Awards, per the 9/11 Legacy Foundation. The film, first released over the summer of 2026, also has September screenings at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum and the National Archives, according to the National Archives. It's already available to stream on Amazon Prime Video, Google TV, Apple TV and YouTube Movies. This isn't Gier's first foray into 9/11-related trauma storytelling either; he released the documentaries “Wounded Heroes” and “Healing the Heroes of 9-11” in 2021, with the latter timed to the attacks' 20th anniversary.
Del Mar Fairgrounds Hosts Meal-Packing Marathon
Back in San Diego, the film's themes of service and resilience are echoed on the ground Friday through a 9/11 meal-packing effort. The San Diego gathering is part of a broader national volunteer effort to prepare meals on September 11. According to 9/11 Day of Service, 50,000 volunteers will pack 20 million meals for families facing hunger in 50+ cities on September 11, 2026. The event is part of the national 9/11 Day initiative.
The need locally is stark. Food insecurity remains a concern in San Diego County. According to the County of San Diego Data Portal, 10.6% of San Diego County residents were enrolled in SNAP in 2022. A San Diego County Community Health Assessment presentation dated 12 Jun 2024 said the San Diego Hunger Coalition estimated that 24% of the county’s population was nutrition insecure. The national 9/11 Day movement is behind Friday's meal-packing push. September 11 is also observed as a National Day of Service and Remembrance.
Local Media Panel Follows Days Later
Separately, the San Diego Press Club will host a free, public online panel titled “Will My Pitch Get Attention or Deleted” on September 15, running from 6 to 7:30 p.m. via Zoom. The discussion isn't tied to the documentary's release but adds to a busy stretch of San Diego media and civic programming bookending the anniversary. Between the Times Square premiere, the federal screenings and the fairgrounds meal drive, San Diego's ties to this year's 9/11 remembrance stretch well beyond the calendar date itself.
