Sept. 11 of 2001 left retired professional teamster Paul Eliacin with mental and physical scars that will never go away. The 71-year-old Haitian immigrant was a witness to the aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center as a first responder.
Suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, Eliacin says he still has nightmares about the horrific images of deceased victims from 9/11.
“I’m traumatized,” he said. “I feel like I’m there and it’s happening as I’m having these nightmares.”
Obstructive sleep apnea and chronic rhinosinusitis also plague Eliacin. Exposure to the toxic air at ground zero left him with an uncontrollable cough.
“I’ve got sicknesses that I can’t pronounce,” he said. “I’m taking medication that I can’t pronounce.”
But despite the mental and physical trauma Eliacin deals with to this day, he says he would do it all again.
“I’m someone that likes to help people. It’s in my nature to do that,” he said.
When the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act passed under former president Barack Obama in 2011, the benefits included in that bill supported first responders like Eliacin.
He credits Congress for providing that and New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani for unsealing a document that revealed how dangerous the toxic air was at the time.
“When I was there it [the air] was still fresh. There was still smoke,” Eliacin said.
What brought Eliacin to ground zero was his experience as a professional teamster in the film and television industry. He and other teamsters from the Theatrical Drivers and Helpers Union Local 817, alongside the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 52, constructed lights and generators using film equipment to help with recovery efforts.
Three days after the attacks, Eliacin came back to the site of ground zero to capture never-before-seen footage and photos of 9/11 for his upcoming documentary, “The Lights on 9/11.”
He says God led him back to ground zero to tell the untold stories of the heroes, victims and casualties of 9/11.
“I felt like the spirit led me…because the whole time that I was there, no one ever told me that it was illegal, that I should not film or that I should not take any photos,” Eliacin said.
Eliacin’s spiritual calling toward storytelling didn’t start after 9/11. Prior to that, he had already spent 11 years working on films and television shows such as “Straight out of Brooklyn,” “Boomerang,” “New York Undercover,” “Men in Black” and “Law & Order.”
Ironically, in 2004, Eliacin’s directorial debut, “Up in Harlem,” featured an opening scene of the World Trade Center.
“I felt all of this was led, not by my action, but by another entity,” he said.
Growing up in a single-parent household as an immigrant, Eliacin struggled with learning English and his mother suffered from a mental illness.
He then moved to Kentucky, where his passion for storytelling began.
“I read everything and anything I could find on filmmaking,” Eliacin said. “I was constantly looking into Backstage, which is a publication for films, movies and television.”
While in the industry, Eliacin learned from various figures such as Spike Lee ‘79, Martin Scorsese and Ice T. He believes the key to building those relationships was the kind spirit instilled in him by his mother, Claire Eliacin.
“Don’t walk around with your pants down to your knees,” Eliacin said. “When you do that, they tend to shy away from helping you.”
25 years after the attacks, Eliacin believes his generation still feels trauma from 9/11. He wants “The Lights on 9/11” to serve as a catalyst for more education on the sacrifices people made, especially first responders.
“Never forget what happened to us,” he said. “There are more of us that passed away from sicknesses, from breathing those toxic dusts that we were told was okay to breathe, than it is the attack itself.”
Eliacin is also pushing for the 9/11 Immigrant Worker Freedom Act to pass. The bill would grant protection to immigrant workers like Eliacin who gave their lives on Sept. 11.
“I think it would be symbolic if that bill were to pass,” he said.
