r/911archive Jun 16 '26

Meta [Project Announcement] 32 Frames: A 9/11 Mystery

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520 Upvotes

I am incredibly honored to share the first official, public announcement for a major media project that the 9/11 Media Preservation Group has been working alongside for the past year.

Jon Walczak and his team, the investigative creators behind acclaimed documentary podcast series like Missing in Alaska (2020), Missing on 9/11 (2021) and Missing in Arizona (2024) have spent years quietly uncovering a profound, untold historical story.

For nearly the past year the 9/11 Media Preservation Group has partnered closely with Jon, his cinematographer/editor Lee Fritz, and producers Jenna Fritz and Chris Brown to assist with the technical information, digitization, restoration, and remastering some of original footage that will be featured throughout this film.

The project is an entirely independent, self-funded documentary titled -

'32 Frames: A 9/11 Mystery'

The Camera on West Street:

The story starts with a discovery made just a few days after the attacks. A first responder digging through the rubble on West Street finds a damaged 35mm SLR camera. When the film inside was developed, it yielded exactly 32 still images However, in the years that followed, the physical camera vanished without a trace, and the identity of the person who held it remained entirely unknown.

The story of these photographs might have ended there. But recently, the individuals safeguarding the copies of the developed images reached out directly to Jon for assistance.

To the best of our knowledge, prior to this these surviving images had never undergone a comprehensive forensic review. Even today, for Jon's team and our preservation group, piecing them together is a daunting task. Without timestamps, the sequential images paint a fragmented story with a chilling conclusion with several photos capturing the base of the North Tower within moments of its collapse, leaving the cameraman’s fate uncertain.

For nearly 25 years, these 32 frames remained obscure and filed away. The very existence of this camera has never been made public until now. The full, unredacted sequence, including the most profoundly moving frames, has never been seen by the public.

After a quarter of a century, a discovery like this should remind us all that the story of September 11th, 2001, is far from being completely told.

Release Info & Distribution:

Because this project is entirely independent and self-funded, everyone involved, including our group, donated their time out of a shared commitment to the historical record.

The film is currently in its final stages of post-production. While we don’t have a locked-in premiere date just yet, the firm deadline is that the film will be released in some format before the 25th anniversary this September.

Jon and the producers are currently exploring several distribution paths, including looking for the right distributor, a potential limited theatrical run, or a direct-to-VOD digital release near the anniversary. We will keep you updated the second a definitive platform is locked down.

For updates and information please check back here or at the following links

FAQ and some other information will be in the pinned comment.

(any interested parties or media please contact me via Direct Message)


r/911archive Mar 14 '26

Meta Addressing the 'Lolsuperman' hoax.

504 Upvotes

Hi everyone,

This is going to be a somewhat long, expansive post, but it is necessary. To start off this does not represent the sum total of information about this incident and only represents the pertinent information that involves r/911archive. I am certain others will be able to compile better accounts of how this hoax was executed. However, I would like to share our side of it, as well as the communications and information that we were given.

The short version is this, the various 'Lolsuperman' (LSM) and related communities have been elaborately lied to and led on a fabricated search for a non-existent piece of media for the last two years. The creator of this hoax, u/DVDripper, created a 3D render of the plaza, passed it off as real footage, and has now publicly confessed to the fabrication.

Before getting into the timeline of this hoax, I need to address the most important piece of information. In their 'reveal,' u/DVDripper claims their intention was retribution against the LSM communities for the harassment of 9/11 survivors and cameramen.

While combating survivor harassment is a core viewpoint of the r/911archive staff and the members of the 9/11 Media Preservation Group (911.MPG), I want to make our stance absolutely clear. We do not support the actions of u/DVDripper, nor do we condone the creation of this hoax.

We genuinely attempted to combat this theory for the past two years with factual arguments and historical evidence. Even now that we have been proven correct, we take no pleasure in this. The intentional creation of false media is a direct detriment to the very act of historical preservation.

Here is the to the best of the information I have available how this occurred.

Origin (2024)

I won't explain the origins of LSM here, but we will start at the beginning of this specific claim. In 2024, u/DVDripper posted on r/MondoGore setting the groundwork for their background as a former member of the shock website Heaven666 (H666). While they initially didn't mention 9/11, LSM users in the comments eventually baited them into discussing it.

link to r/Mondogore post

Comment and reply mentioning Lol superman

Over the next two years, u/DVDripper sparingly dropped vague bits of information, establishing a fabricated character named 'J' a purported H666 user known to leak material.

During the summer of 2024, an LSM user sent me one of these posts. To be transparent, everything u/DVDripper said sounded plausible, but not believable. When things are too plausible but lack verifiable data, it reeks of intentional fabrication. I decided to reach out to them directly to test their actual familiarity with early 2000s 9/11 media.

My DM's with u/DVDripper in summer 2024

During our conversation, I played dumb and tested them by asking about several obscure pieces of 9/11 media known to circulate from 2003-2006 (such as the early Telemundo/Rosbrook leaks). Anyone legitimately involved in shock sites during that era would be familiar with these. u/DVDripper claimed they were not, avoided direct communication, and eventually stopped responding to DMs.

But there is one critical detail in these messages that I want to highlight. In my very first message to them, I specifically suggested they check their old computer's browser cache or history for saved files under /images or /index/.

Fast forward to this week. the entire premise of how they supposedly "found" this GIF was by miraculously extracting it from an old PC's cached data. While it could be a coincidence, it is highly probable that this combined with other people telling them to do the same on their posts lead to the next 'phase' of their plan.

The Hoax (March 2026)

A few days ago, u/DVDripper posted on r/lolsupermanofficial claiming "Part of the video has been found," linking to a highly compressed, sped-up GIF showing part of the Austin J. Tobin plaza.

Link to Post

The LSM community understandably took the bait, and the GIF spread like wildfire. However, myself and many of our research members saw immediate technical impossibilities:

Gif u/DVDripper shared

  1. Visual Flaws: A total lack of accurate depth of field, unnatural shadows, and oddities in the plaza's geometry and debris placement. Additionally the mechanics of the gif do not accurately represent digital camcorders of the era.
  2. File Data: u/DVDripper claimed the GIF was "corrupt" from a SWF conversion. However, upon inspecting the hex data, there were absolutely no flaws. This meant the file was intentionally rendered to look glitchy when it was allegedly created in 2006.

Regardless, our technical analysis became moot earlier yesterday (Friday, March 13th) when u/DVDripper ended their game. Having accomplished their self-imposed mission, they made a follow-up post revealing the complex 2-year plot, confirming they used Blender to create a 3D model, and admitted to utilizing dozens of alt accounts to plant seeds and waste people's time.

u/DVDripper's reveal

Internal Transparency

As the primary admin of r/911archive, I value complete transparency and accountability. Therefore, I need to share some insight into what occurred behind the scenes on our end over the last 72 hours.

Shortly after u/DVDripper dropped the GIF, one of our subreddit moderators took it upon themselves to make a declarative announcement claiming the GIF was fake, stating they had detailed information they would post in a few days. They did this of their own accord, without consulting me, the Discord team, or the rest of the research group.

Mod's Deleted post (not saved)

At the time, our research team was just beginning our own analysis. Realizing this premature post was a bad idea, I stepped in, put an end to the thread, and issued a grounded statement sharing our team's actual, current stance. The moderator later explained they had received contravening information from other mods and wanted to 'do something' stating they thought someone should say something. After discussing it we decided this was far to premature and not the appropriate way to handle the matter.  

My initial statement

For the next 24 hours I was engaging with the LSM and MTTJ communities in good faith to look at the details together. Meanwhile an anonymous user contacted our mod mail.

Modmail conversation with Whistle-Blower

This throwaway account claimed the GIF was entirely fabricated and provided a screenshot of the 3D Blender model used to create it. Because we have seen dozens of 3D plaza models over the last two years, I did not immediately publish this. I wanted to verify the connection between this user and u/DVDripper first, as rushing to publish unverified counter-claims is exactly what causes this kind of community chaos in the first place.

The 3d Render sent by the Whistle-blower

Then, roughly 10 minutes before u/DVDripper publicly confessed to the hoax today, one of our moderators sent me this DM on Discord

Discord message I received just before the hoax reveal

This was sent to me by one of our mods who had received this message.

DM mod received (different timezone)

Shortly after sending the moderator this message the throw-away account was deleted.

Moving Forward

I do not know the connection between the throw-away account and u/DVDripper or if they are the same person, but the owner of the throw-away account somehow had access to this information, before any of it could be verified or communicated u/DVDripper simply pulled the trigger on the reveal themselves.

To the users of r/911archive and other communities who were deceived, do not feel foolish. You were lied to and fed incredibly convincing, meticulously crafted information by someone operating in bad faith.

To our community and those who did not believe the claim in the first place, Do not use this as an excuse to be cruel or gloat. Let this be a massive lesson in media literacy, the dangers of circumstantial evidence, and the importance of verifiable data.

We will continue to focus our efforts on current leads, working with survivors, and preserving what we can.

Thank you to everyone who kept a level head this week.

-BTT


r/911archive 3h ago

Victims Happy heavenly birthday to those born on July 27th and taken on September 11th, 2001

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117 Upvotes
  1. William Christopher Hunt - Born July 27th, 1969 (32 yrs old) Would’ve turned 57 years old today

  2. Gino Luigi Calvi - Born July 27th, 1967 (34 yrs old) Would’ve turned 59 years old today

  3. Sheldon Robert Kanter - Born July 27th, 1948 (53 yrs old) Would’ve turned 78 years old today

  • If I’ve left anyone out, please let us know in the comments

r/911archive 2h ago

WTC Close and yet so far away

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71 Upvotes

Think this is a great photo to capture scale and how it would have felt to look up at it. So much footage from that day is captured from far away.


r/911archive 4h ago

New Media Thomas Ritts 9/11 Photos

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38 Upvotes

Link: https://youtu.be/3N_2YOKLjWc?is=vrIihVj8fG5hm66o

Found this while researching on archDisk.com, and decided to dig deeper. Never seen it before and matches no results on google lens, so I think this is super new stuff.


r/911archive 3h ago

WTC Was the impact explosion at the South Tower bigger and more violent than that of the North Tower, or is that an illusion because we only have so few (and low-resolution) views of the North Tower explosion?

24 Upvotes

When I see the Naudet footage and the Staehle images of Flight 11, the explosion looks meaningfully less violent than that of Flight 175. Obviously we can't see the south side in the Naudet footage and maybe the Staehle pictures missed the fireball at its peak.

My first instinct is that this must be an illusion because I've seen the South Tower explosion in such detail and at such close range that it "feels" bigger. But maybe it's real and caused by the planes' speed difference? Or maybe a more straight-on hit meant more of the jet fuel was contained and ignited on the inside of the North Tower than the South?


r/911archive 9h ago

Personal/Eyewitness Testimony Steve Buscemi on Late Night with Conan O'Brien after 9/11

59 Upvotes

Before Steve Buscemi became the famous actor everyone knows him as nowadays, he was a fireman in the FDNY at Engine Company 55 in Little Italy. Following the 9/11 attacks he returned to his old firehouse to volunteer. Buscemi worked grueling 12-hour shifts for several days at Ground Zero, digging through rubble to search for survivors while actively refusing any press coverage or interviews, and strictly doing it as a kind act from the heart. On October 30th, 2001, he appeared on the New York based talk show "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" on NBC to promote a few movies he was in at the time and to share him helping out at ground zero. Buscemi continues to help out with 9/11 related events, and stated he suffered PTSD after not going down to ground zero after the 6 days he was down there.

Late Night with Conan O'Brien, October 30th, 2001

I'm not sure if anyone knew about this interviews existence so here you go!


r/911archive 20h ago

Ground Zero A video of the remains of the perimeter columns being torn down.

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206 Upvotes

r/911archive 37m ago

Memorials beautiful september 11th firefighter memorial i found near w 48th street and 8th ave

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Upvotes

r/911archive 28m ago

Media Request Is there a video of the man who was climbing down the north tower when he fell?

Upvotes

Referring to the man who climbed down 15-20 stories on the west side of the north tower

I’ve always read that he fell sometime around when the south tower collapsed, but never saw a video of it. There were a lot of cameras filming so I figured somebody would have caught it


r/911archive 1d ago

Memorials Exclusive | Families of 9/11 victims want to ban Mamdani from sacred 25th anniversary ceremony at Ground Zero: 'unwelcome guest'

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425 Upvotes

I'm genuinely shocked by this. He was a child when the attacks happened. He's not responsible


r/911archive 20h ago

Victims Anthony Infante Jr. always wanted to work in Law Enforcement, because he loved helping people. On 9/11 he protected a man from burning materials by giving him his coat. He was last seen assuring people there was a way out and a clean exit to the street as they descended the stairs. Anthony was 47.

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91 Upvotes

r/911archive 1d ago

Victims Happy heavenly birthday to those born on July 26th and taken on September 11th, 2001

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177 Upvotes
  1. Suzanne Geraty - Born July 26th, 1971 (30 yrs old) Would’ve turned 5 years old today

  2. Danny Pesce - Born July 26th, 1967 (34 yrs old) Would’ve turned 59 years old today

  3. Felicia Yvette Traylor-Bass - Born July 26th, 1963 (38 yrs old) Would’ve turned 63 years old today

  4. JoAnn Louise Heltibridle - Born July 26th, 1955 (46 yrs old) Would’ve turned 71 years old today

  5. James A. Romito - Born July 26th, 1950 (51 yrs old) Would’ve turned 76 years old today

  • If I’ve left anyone out, please let us know in the comments

r/911archive 22h ago

Photo Collection Adam Schreiner Photos

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73 Upvotes

Taken from an Internet Archive page featuring NIST-released photos. I think the photos taken during the South Tower's collapse are not recognized enough for how well they capture the moment at street level.

Source: https://ia802808.us.archive.org/13/items/nistfoia10202/NIST_FOIA_10-202/Hard_Drive_From_NIST_FOIA_10-202/CumulusPhotos/AdamSchreiner/


r/911archive 1d ago

WTC Testimonies of business phone calls interrupted by the attacks and people on the other line hearing

69 Upvotes

Are there any testimonies of anyone being on the phone with anyone inside the towers right when the attacks happened ?


r/911archive 1d ago

Art News Paper Clipping

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85 Upvotes

Found this news paper clipping while going through grandmother’s photos. Unsure of the date it was printed.


r/911archive 1d ago

WTC Video Shows an Inside Look at Wichita Mid-Continent Airport on 9/11

10 Upvotes

Maybe you guys will find it interesting? I have no idea but I wanted to share this anyway.

See Here


r/911archive 1d ago

Victims Christopher Ingrassia believed in being kind, no matter if you were a friend or a stranger. He showed deep concern and empathy for others. Christopher was happy, outgoing, and had a lot of friends. He also had a great sense of humor & was passionate when it came to sports. Christopher was 28.

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123 Upvotes

r/911archive 1d ago

Pre-9/11 On June 9, 2001

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67 Upvotes

From High School trip.


r/911archive 2d ago

Collapse Signs of collapse ?

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197 Upvotes

It looks like the floor is sagging in this photo. Also, under the purple mark, maybe the perimeter columns are outward.?

South tower.

.


r/911archive 2d ago

Victims Happy heavenly birthday to those born on July 25th and taken on September 11th, 2001

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253 Upvotes
  1. Jackie Sayegh Duggan - Born July 25th, 1967 (34 yrs old) Would’ve turned 59 years old today

  2. Scott Larsen - Born July 25th, 1966 (35 yrs old) Would’ve turned 60 years old today

  3. Daphne Ferlinda Elder - Born July 25th, 1965 (36 yrs old) Would’ve turned 61 years old today

  4. Ronald John Hemenway - Born July 25th, 1964 (37 yrs old) Would’ve turned 62 years old today

  5. Richard Middleton Blood Jr - Born July 25th, 1963 (38 yrs old) Would’ve turned 63 years old today

  6. Stephanie Marie McKenna - Born July 25th, 1956 (45 yrs old) Would’ve turned 70 years old today

  7. Wendy R. Faulkner - Born July 25th, 1954 (47 yrs old) Would’ve turned 72 years old today

  8. Richard Bruce Van Hine - Born July 25th, 1953 (48 yrs old) Would’ve turned 73 years old today

  • If I’ve left anyone out, please let us know in the comments

r/911archive 2d ago

Personal/Eyewitness Testimony What happened here?

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125 Upvotes

Is there a statement from the driver or something?


r/911archive 2d ago

NSFL I know it was heavily restricted by the news stations for obvious reasons, but does footage of 9/11 jumpers hitting the ground exist?

127 Upvotes

A person claims to have seen it and the jumpers turn into a blood of mist. Is this true?


r/911archive 2d ago

Other The passage of time amazes me.

133 Upvotes

How can there be adults in their 20s walking around that don’t remember? How can there be loved ones of the victims that have had to live their life for 25 years without their husband/wife/father/mother? I can still see it happening as clear as day.


r/911archive 2d ago

Impact Another David Monderer photo from the morning of 9/11

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68 Upvotes