Jay here. Do you remember where you were on the morning of September 11, 2001?  Two members of the Dartmouth Class of 1977, Joe Flounders and Bob Overhiser, were in the south tower of the World Trade Center.  After the North Tower was hit, some of the people in the south tower were advised to shelter in place, while others were told to evacuate via the stairs.  Joe and several of his co-workers on the 84th floor had started to descend when word reached them of a colleague in distress.  Joe immediately volunteered to go back up and assist.  He did not survive.  (How do we know Joe went back up?  The people with whom he had started down the stairs made it to safety and told of his selfless decision.)
 

Bob, who was on the 61st floor, was told to descend via the stairwell where he encountered a disabled woman who was slowly making her way down, one difficult step at a time.  He and a couple of others decided to stay with her, encourage and assist her as she negotiated dozens of flights of stairs while thousands thundered past them.  Somewhere near floor 17, Bob felt an impact that rocked the building – the second plane hitting.  He feared the building would collapse around them.  They hustled to the bottom of the stairs.  Bob saw daylight at the top of a stopped escalator, ran up it and exited to safety, just a few minutes later the tower collapsed.

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I read about Joe's altruism in the alumni magazine, but was unaware of Bob's 9/11 experience until nine months later when he attended our 25th reunion.​  We were all dumbstruck as Bob related his chilling tale, yet I felt oddly uplifted by the compassion and selflessness he had shown by patiently helping a stranger in need.  This was precisely the kind of altruism Joe had exhibited 23 floors higher that day.  To me, the actions of these men exemplified the true Dartmouth spirit; daring a deed... with the still North in their hearts.

 

In the months and years that followed, Bob's story stayed with me, as did the harrowing images of 9/11.  I was eventually inspired to write a 10-minute play, Do I Look Like Your Wife?, in which two strangers are trapped on the roof of a burning skyscraper with no hope of rescue.  At our 30th reunion in 2007, the play was given a moving reading by Jennifer Leigh Warren and Rick Stillman.  The piece went on to win a couple of awards, serve as a fundraiser for local hospices, and be used by Ira Byock, MD, during a retreat for his palliative care team at Dartmouth-Hitchcock. 

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Fast forward nearly ten years later I met a man named Chase Bailey, a Vietnam vet who had done well enough at Cisco Systems to return to his early passions – painting and film.  His producing credits included The Libertine with Johnny Depp, Drunkboat with John Goodman and John Malkovitch, The Life Before Her Eyes with Uma Thurman, and several others.  Chase was part of a small group who were discussing 9/11.  I related Bob’s experience and the 10-minute play it had inspired.  Chase asked if I would send him a copy. He read it and immediately called to ask if he could produce it, and would I please turn it into a screenplay?  I said yes on one condition: that neither of us make any money from it.  He agreed.

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We raised enough (including significant contributions from me, Bob, and others) to hire a cast and crew, rehearse it, and shoot it.  Since filming on the top of a skyscraper is prohibitively expensive and fraught with challenges, we filmed in a large studio in front of a green screen.  The plan was to render the Manhattan cityscape below via special effects (FX).  The green screen footage was edited to show to potential backers who might underwrite the post-production, which included, FX, sound mixing, original score, final edits, etc.).  Since there is little chance of a short film providing any return on investment, Chase established a nonprofit to serve as the film's fiscal sponsor so backers could at least get a tax deduction.  Before Chase was able to raise any money he died unexpectedly, leaving a less-than-tidy estate that took years to settle.

 

During that time I would occasionally reach out to his widow and ask about the status of the film.  Since Chase and I had operated on a handshake and I had never received any compensation, I still owned the copyright, but I wanted to get her blessing to pick up the ball and run with it.  She finally got back to me in the fall of 2025, saying there were no strings attached and I was welcome to have at it.  I reached out to the original production team, which included editor and production manager Marc Dole (founder of Hatchling Studios and a NH Filmmaker of the Year), Christian Boudman (founder of ClearcutFX whose work can be seen in Star Wars, Game of Thrones, 3 Body Problem, and many more); and composer Alison Plante (former chair of the Film Scoring Department at Berklee College of Music). Everyone was onboard with completing the film.

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With so many years having passed since 9/11, and so much having happened in the world, it felt to me that the event had moved from the realm of recent history into that of memory.  I made the decision to replace the realistic Manhattan cityscape in the background with dream-like animation.  Not only would this better serve the film's theme of compassion and selflessness, it could allow students to become involved. In April of this year I reached out to John Bell at Dartmouth's DREAM Studio to inquire about collaborating.  He said yes, and introduced me to Warren Cockerham, the new Technical Director of the college's Department of Film & Media Studies.  Warren also said yes.  A couple of students have already been recruited, and work has begun on the animation. In the coming weeks, more students will be offered the opportunity to work on such things as sound mixing, color correcting, compositing, etc.

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Once this film is completed – hopefully this summer – the goal is to premiere it in both Hanover and NYC around the 25th anniversary of 9/11.  It will then be submitted to dozens of film festivals in the U.S. and abroad, giving it enough recognition and "cred" that it will have a long life in higher education (e.g. ethics, philosophy, psychology, palliative care, history, and more).

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