In 2011, I directed over 40 short films for TIME's Beyond 9/11 project, which marked the ten year anniversary of 9/11. The majority of films were compelling oral histories recounting each person's own experience of the day. In addition, there were so many powerful stories, that we threaded together four additional films that combined a number of different voices talking about the same theme or story. One of those films was The Survivors, which told the story of Richard Fern, Stanley Pramuth, Ron Defrancesco and Brian Clark who were the only four survivors to escape tower two of the World Trade Center. All four of them were remarkably above the point of impact of where the planes hit but still managed to survive. Their unbelievable stories brought us to tears and still haunt me today.
To see more about TIME's Beyond 9/11 project, go to the INTERACTIVE section of the website.