Topics
Guests
- Sekou Sibyformer president of the Restaurant Opportunities Center, which advocates for low-wage restaurant workers. He worked at the Windows on the World restaurant located in the World Trade Center.
- Julie CohenOscar-nominated filmmaker.
- Betsy WestOscar-nominated filmmaker.
A new documentary titled Top of the World tells the story of Windows on the World, the legendary restaurant atop the World Trade Center, through the eyes of its former employees. Windows on the World served guests for 25 years, until the morning of September 11, 2001, when it was destroyed in the attacks on the World Trade Center. Seventy-nine workers and 91 diners were killed.
We’re joined by Top of the World's co-directors, Julie Cohen and Betsy West, and by Sekou Siby, a former line cook at Windows on the World. Siby, who immigrated to the United States from the Ivory Coast in 1996, was originally scheduled to work on the morning of September 11, but a co-worker asked him to switch shifts. “He didn't make it,” says Siby, who later became an organizer and longtime leader at the Restaurant Opportunities Center (ROC), an advocacy group founded by Windows on the World workers to support each other in the aftermath of the attack.
“The extraordinary immigrant workforce of Windows [of the World] and what they collectively created is just a reminder of the contributions of immigrant New Yorkers to the restaurant world and to the culture of the city,” says Cohen. “We want people to remember not just the tragedy, but the real beauty and the specific stories of what was lost on that day.”
Top of the World premieres on CNN Monday, September 7, 2026.
Transcript
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.
We end today’s show with a look at a new documentary that premieres on CNN Monday night, just ahead of the 25th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center, September 11th, 2001. Top of the World is directed by the Oscar-nominated filmmakers Julie Cohen and Betsy West. It tells the story of Windows on the World, the legendary restaurant atop the World Trade Center, the North Tower, through the eyes of the former chefs and immigrant workers who kept the restaurant going, until it all came to a tragic end a quarter of a century ago. Everyone who was at the restaurant the morning of September 11, 2001, was killed. That includes 79 workers and 91 guests. This is the trailer for Top of the World.
KEVIN ZRALY: Innovative.
NATHALIE TOLENTINO: Splendid.
RUTH REICHL: Grandiose.
KEVIN ZRALY: Magical. Windows on the World was a show every night. You couldn’t get in unless you knew somebody.
UNIDENTIFIED: The World Trade Center was built during this financial crisis. It was a very big expense.
MICHAEL LOMONACO: People just didn’t like these two buildings, and so the idea was open a restaurant, humanize it.
RUTH REICHL: Joe Baum, who was opening this restaurant over a hundred stories up in the air, he understood that people went out because you wanted an experience.
MICHAEL LOMONACO: With 450 employees, Windows was like the U.N. of the restaurant world.
NATHALIE TOLENTINO: I was from Peru. It’s New York City. It’s a melting pot.
SEKOU SIBY: I came from the Ivory Coast. Being in the U.S. was a big, big dream.
CAROL JENKINS: This just in: A plane has crashed into one of the towers.
SEKOU SIBY: My friend’s wife called me and said, “Your building is burning. I’m trying to call my husband.”
UNIDENTIFIED: We didn’t know who was there.
MICHAEL LOMONACO: We are still here, and we retain the memory of them.
RUTH REICHL: Everybody’s notion of the restaurant changed. It became ours.
NATHALIE TOLENTINO: We weren’t just co-workers. It was a family.
SEKOU SIBY: These are the kind of stories that you remember.
MICHAEL LOMONACO: There will never be anything like Windows on the World.
AMY GOODMAN: The trailer for Top of the World, a new documentary by the Oscar-nominated filmmakers Julie Cohen and Betsy West about Windows on the World, the restaurant atop the World Trade Center, on the 107th floor. This is another clip from the film that features some of the former workers at the restaurant and how well things were going in the months before September 11, 2001.
RESTAURANT WORKER 1: I think in the last year, we were the highest-grossing restaurant.
RESTAURANT WORKER 2: Mm-hmm.
RESTAURANT WORKER 1: Is it in the United States? Something like that?
RESTAURANT WORKER 2: Privately owned.
RESTAURANT WORKER 3: Yeah.
RESTAURANT WORKER 1: Privately owned.
NATHALIE TOLENTINO: We were all in sync, and we were mainly the same people moving ahead in the company. David Emil was the owner of Windows. So, David comes to the front desk one day, and he’s like, “Nathalie, you interested in being a manager?” Yes. I felt appreciated. That was the first opportunity that I was given to move ahead in my career.
SEKOU SIBY: In 2001, I think, for me, it was the first moment of stability. I decided to bring my wife to America. I was working a little harder, and getting the promotion, and also improving significantly my English proficiency. And I had a pending asylum case. For me, it was going in the right direction. My wife got pregnant, and she was due in October 2001.
MICHAEL LOMONACO: 2001 was the 25th anniversary of Windows on the World. We were planning a series of parties. We had it planned for October. Veuve Clicquot champagne printed a special label for us, that was a 25th anniversary label. Twenty-five years for any restaurant is a celebration. And for us, it was momentous.
AMY GOODMAN: That clip from the documentary Top of the World, premiering on CNN Monday night.
For more, we’re joined here in the studio by the directors, Julie Cohen and Betsy West. Their previous films together include RBG and Julia, My Name Is Pauli Murray and the forthcoming Amelia, for Amelia Earhart. And we’re joined here in New York by one of the former workers at Windows on the World who’s featured in the documentary, Sekou Siby. He worked as a cook at Windows on the World and was scheduled to work on September 11th, but a co-worker asked him to switch shifts. He later became president of ROC — that’s Restaurant Opportunities Centers United — an advocacy group for restaurant workers. Today he’s a nonprofit consultant.
You lost 70 co-workers on September 11th.
SEKOU SIBY: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: As we come up on the 25th anniversary, my deepest condolences to you and, well, to everyone. So, your friend — he was from Ecuador; you’re from the Ivory Coast — asked you to work that — he asked if you would switch with him, right?
SEKOU SIBY: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: And that could he work on September 11th in the morning?
SEKOU SIBY: Yeah, it is — it is one of those stories that’s very sad, but gave me the guilt all along. Moises Rivas was supposed to work on Saturday night, and asked me to swap a shift with him. I used to be off Sundays and Mondays, and I worked for him on Saturday — on Sunday. He worked for me on Tuesday. He didn’t make it.
AMY GOODMAN: And the man who brought you to Windows on the World, who also worked there, talk about him and his family and what happened that morning. You were home, right?
SEKOU SIBY: Yeah, I was home. When I came from Africa in ’96, I was living with Karim up until 2020, when his wife came. And he has two kids. And I left his apartment and took my own. His wife called me and asked me to check the TV, because our building is burning. And I turned the TV on. It was effectively burning. And she asked me to call her husband. We have two phones. I kept calling the phone numbers. It was ringing. And nobody ever pick up, until the phone went dead silent when the building collapsed.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Sekou, could you talk about when you found out what the enormous loss of your co-workers on that day and how [inaudible] to organize after 9/11?
SEKOU SIBY: After we lost, after the collapse of the building, it was so difficult, that we didn’t know how to make sense of everything that happened. So, we kind of organized ourselves and went to a went to the union first, because the employer didn’t have the name of his own employees. Everything was burned down in the building. So, we started to organize among ourselves to support all the restaurant workers and see how, what we can do for each other, going out and looking for a job.
The tourism industry was dead. No restaurants were hiring. But at least when you go to a restaurant and you find a — as a cook, you find a server job, you can come to the center, a place where we gather, and say, “Hey, they don’t have a cook position, but they have a server position.” So, this is how we were keeping each other informed and helping each other get a new job. And that’s what became later the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United.
AMY GOODMAN: Julie Cohen, talk about your decision to focus on this, on this 25th anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks.
JULIE COHEN: Yeah. I mean, obviously, there’s a side of real sadness and tragedy and the loss of life and people that were dear to Sekou and others. But Windows on the World was also a place of beauty, of diversity, of opportunity. And when we learned about, really, the extraordinary immigrant workforce of Windows and what they collectively created, it’s just a reminder of the contributions of immigrant New Yorkers to the restaurant world and to the culture of the city.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Julie, what are you hoping is the message of the film [inaudible] audience? There’ll be a lot of commemorations in a few days of the [inaudible] 9/11 tragedy.
JULIE COHEN: Yeah, I mean, I think we want people to remember not just the tragedy, but the real beauty and the specific stories of what was lost on that day. I mean, you can be overwhelmed by the sadness, but let’s not let that wipe away the legacy of a truly extraordinary institution in New York and all the people that helped make it be everything it was.
AMY GOODMAN: And, Betsy West, talk about why you wanted to get involved with this project on this 25th anniversary.
BETSY WEST: Yeah, as Julie said, we were a little reluctant at the beginning. I mean, it’s such a painful memory. We’re both New Yorkers. We worked in the news business. We all spent months and months and months covering this story. But I think it was learning about the immigrant workers and realizing the connection to what’s going on today, that this seemed like a story that was going to resonate. I mean, across the country, 22% of the people who work in restaurants are immigrants. And here in New York, I mean, it’s well over 50% of the people. And they make —
AMY GOODMAN: And the number of people who are picked up by ICE.
BETSY WEST: ICE.
AMY GOODMAN: How many — I mean, I don’t know if we know the numbers — are restaurant workers?
BETSY WEST: I don’t — I don’t think we know. But we do know that ICE hangs out around restaurants looking for people. And, you know, this is a story of what the contributions of these people are, you know, what — how they help drive our economy and just our life, you know, our experience of going to restaurants and having a rich and diverse life. And this seemed like an important story to tell.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah, and, Betsy, following up on that, given this, I think, over 50,000 people arrested by ICE just last month, are you hoping to spur [inaudible] further conversation about the role of immigrants in U.S. society today?
BETSY WEST: Yeah, absolutely. I think that — I mean, not only are immigrants working in restaurants, they’re starting restaurants. I mean, again, the percentage is it’s over 30% of restaurants that are started in this country are by immigrants.
AMY GOODMAN: And, Julie, you’re not only a leading journalist and documentary maker, you’re also a leader of the protests in an area, your community, in New Jersey, particularly around ICE.
JULIE COHEN: Yeah, I mean, I would count myself among many Americans who are vocally speaking out against ICE’s unlawful and unintelligent, in terms of what the impact is on society—
AMY GOODMAN: And you also were on —
JULIE COHEN: — detention of —
AMY GOODMAN: You were also on Democracy Now! with your husband, Paul Barrett, both pulling your bank accounts from Citizens Bank, because of their support of deportation, has led them to pull out of support for CoreCivic and GEO Group.
JULIE COHEN: That’s true.
AMY GOODMAN: Sekou, what gives you hope today? I mean, you headed ROC, the Restaurant Opportunities Center, for years. You just recently left. You see the climate today. You come from an immigrant community, you yourself from Côte d’Ivoire, from the Ivory Coast.
SEKOU SIBY: Yeah. I think, for me, the whole story of Windows on the World is a story for resilience. I’ve seen much mass deportation during the Bush number two era. Now it’s gotten worse. But let’s never give up hope, because realities do change. But we need to keep fighting against the system that’s making immigrant communities as, you know, the worst thing that’s ever happened to America.
AMY GOODMAN: You were an asylum seeker when you came to the United States.
SEKOU SIBY: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: And now you’re a U.S. citizen.
SEKOU SIBY: Yes. It was a long process that took almost 20 years, because adjusting status in America is actually extremely complicated. But we shall never give up hope. I think the story of Windows on the World is a story of a resilience, a resilience in the face of adversity. And this adversity, we will overcome it if we don’t give up. And we shall never give up.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Sekou, when you hear of the current administration going after not only on [inaudible] also those trying to shut down all asylum claims, eliminate [inaudible] status, trying to change [inaudible] and increasing fees for people trying to come in [inaudible], your sense of what the future holds?
SEKOU SIBY: Yeah, my sense — again, my sense of the future of America will always be hopeful. There is a bump on the road. I remember John Ashcroft in the Bush era, and I think we came back to the same thing. It is a cycle. There are some things that’s really bad nowadays, and we have to — we have to face it. We have to fight against it. And what Julie is doing is a way to go. In a functional democracy, immigrants are not seen as the enemy. But, unfortunately, this is what is going. But the hope is we lose hope. And we shall never lose hope. We shall keep fighting.
AMY GOODMAN: Sekou Siby worked at Windows on the World, lost 70 co-workers at the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001, went on to organize restaurant workers for almost a quarter of a century. And Julie Cohen and Betsy West are the Oscar-nominated filmmakers. Their new film, Top of the World, premieres on CNN on Monday.
That does it for our show. I’ll be in Madison, Wisconsin, at the Barrymore Theatre on Saturday night and at Chicago for two events, one of them with Juan González after the screening of Steal This Story, Please! Check our website at democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.
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