FROM THE ASHES profiles 10 artists who lived in lower Manhattan at the time of the terrorist attack. As they pick up the shattered pieces of their lives and struggle to redefine the meaning of their art, they relate their experiences of September 11.

When the World Trade Towers collapsed, the dust and rubble spread over the neighborhood of Tribeca, home to hundreds of working artists. Many were forced to abandon their homes and studios for an unspecified period of time.

Among them is Laurie Anderson, who offers eloquent testimony and raises soul-searching questions about the role of the artist and social responsibility. We also hear from Skip Blumberg, a video artist who was contacted by a children's television program to produce a piece about a 12 year-old neighbor who bakes cookies for the rescue workers.

Pat Oleszko is a performance artist who had performed at the World Trade Center Plaza when it was brand new, volunteered with the rescue workers for 4 days, and is now struggling to reconcile her quirky humor with the devastation she has just experienced. Shahzia Sikander is a successful young painter who grew up in a Muslim household in Pakistan where all the women were expected to be educated. Painter Barbara Friedman's studio is covered with a layer of ash.

Guitarist Oscar Santiago lived in a building directly facing one of the Towers. His young cousin worked on the 105th floor, and perished in the attack. He says, "I don't hear the music anymore. But I know I will. You know, that will come back to me. My cousin? I don't know. My stuff? Probably. My life? My normal life? No."

Deborah Shaffer, winner of the 1986 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short, interweaves these stories and others with scenes of lower Manhattan in the days following the attack, as the artists clean up their homes, and begin to get back to work.

"Recommended. An emotional glimpse into how a tragedy of gigantic proportion affects a creative mind."—Library Journal