R.I. filmmakers immortalize 9/11 hero
‘Man in Red Bandana’ documentary debuts today in Providence
Total strangers have lionized him in poetry and song, mothers have named their children after him and artists have recreated his image in paint and ink.
Now a group of Rhode Island-based filmmakers is telling the story of Welles Remy Crowther, who rose from the anony- mous rubble of 9/11 to become a hero of modern American folklore.
The documentary “Man in Red Bandana” will be featured in theaters in 19 states by Monday, which marks 16 years since Saudi jihadists hijacked commercial jetliners and turned them into missiles, felling the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in the deadliest terror attack on U.S. soil ever; nearly 3,000 lives were claimed. Written and directed by Matthew Weiss, the project was so compelling it transformed him from a New York traffic lawyer into a filmmaker.
“A lot of filmmakers go looking for stories,” Weiss said. “This is a story that found a filmmaker.”
Weiss made the movie with Chad Verdi
of Verdi Productions, the East Greenwich-based studio behind the recent “Bleed For This,” a feature film based on the true story of homegrown prizefighter Vinny Pazienza’s comeback after a car crash left him with a fractured neck.
A graduate of Boston College, where he played lacrosse, Welles went to work for the financial services firm Sandler O’Neil & Partners. On Sept. 11, 2001, he was working on the 104th floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center. Seventeen minutes after American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower, United Airlines Flight 175 struck the North, between floors 78 and 84.
Welles, who was 24 years old, never made it out when the towers collapsed, and what happened during the final moments of his life remained a mystery – but not for long.
The true scale of his life-saving heroics began to eke out, a little at a time, after the New York Times published a story in May 2002 that described a mysterious man who led at least 11 people – maybe more – to safety after the jetliner had crashed into the South Tower. Their savior had somehow discovered the only viable escape route through the debris-strewn chaos of the so called “line of death” on the 78th floor. Survivors, some of them badly injured, described how he carried one woman on his shoulders down to the 61st floor, leading a group of others before making the return trip, 17 flights up, to shepherd yet another group to safety.
They were struck by the man’s calm, confident demeanor – as if he’d been trained in emergency rescue.
And there was another thing about him they couldn’t forget: He wore a red bandana across his face – cowboy-style.
He was last seen making a third trip up to the 78th floor, shortly before the building imploded in a fiery heap of concrete, dust and smoke – an image seared all too well into the nation’s collective memory.
One person who read the New York Times story was Welles’ mother, Alison Crowther. She knew the angelic figure in the tower had to be her son, because Welles always carried a red bandana. Two of the survivors later met with Welles’ parents and were able to make a positive identification of him from family photos. They helped piece together what happened during the last hour of his life – “his finest hour,” according to Tom DeNucci, executive producer of “Man in Red Bandana.”
“When I first saw one of the early cuts of the movie I asked myself, ‘Why doesn’t everybody know about this hero?’” said DeNucci. “He did something so heroic – he made the ultimate selfless act and it was just so compelling to me.”
Weiss said he first heard about the story from his banker, Jeff Crowther – Welles’ father – about a decade ago. Weiss said he was having lunch with Crowther when he told him the story of how his son died “and I was just blown away.”
“I thought it was one of the most amazing stories I ever heard,” Weiss said. “Everyone should hear this story.”
WHEN WEISS proposed a film about Welles, Crowther gave him some disheartening news: somebody was already working on one. Afew years later when he checked in on the progress of the project with Crowther, his banker friend told him the filmmakers – a husband-and-wife team – had dropped the project to concentrate on their growing family. “That’s when I picked up the ball and started rolling with it,” says Weiss. “And it’s been an amazing journey.”
Though Crowther’s story is among the best-known tales of heroism and sacrifice to emerge from one of the darkest days in modern times, DeNucci says the 80-minute film is the most thorough, thought-provoking account on record – and it comes with a surprise ending that’s so inspiringly perfect that some will find it harder to believe than the best fiction.
Readers should be advised about now that there’s a major spoiler alert coming sometime in the next few paragraphs.
And it starts with the clue of Welles’ steady, level-headed demeanor as he led victims of the attack to safety. If his smooth manner seemed like that of a schooled firefighter – well, they were.
A native of Nyack, N.Y., Welles had been a volunteer firefighter in high school.
It seems fitting that when his body was finally removed from the debris of the South Tower in March 2002 – it was discovered with the remains of other New York City firefighters who had entered the building to try to save as many lives as they possibly could.
Exactly how fitting did not become evident when his remains were identified, however. Even though Welles had been working in the white-collar world of Wall Street finance, it became apparent to his parents that it wasn’t a fulfilling line of work for him. Well after the discovery of his remains, when they were sifting through their son’s personal effects, they found the proof – his fully completed application for a job as a firefighter with the Fire Department of New York.
In 2006, the FDNY made Welles’dream of becoming a firefighter come true posthumously, making him its first and only honorary member of the fire department.
“It will give you the chills,” says DeNucci. “It’s one of those movies, again, stranger than fiction. If somebody wrote this in a screenplay and sent it to me, I’d be like, ‘C’mon, that didn’t really happen.’ If you read it somewhere you wouldn’t believe it.”
Woven from a blend of first-time interviews, archival footage, dramatic reenactments and animation to better help viewers understand the logistics of Ground Zero, the project was graphically jarring for the filmmakers, who had to watch “jaw-dropping, horrific footage” over and over again during the production process.
Viewers, he says, will surely find the voice of the narrator – screen actress Gwyneth Paltrow – a soothing backdrop. She’s among many who helped make the film a winner, says DeNucci, including some who played unsung behind-the-scenes roles, like Paul Luba, who was working as an intern in Verdi Studios during production. Luba is the son of Paul Luba, the state-appointed fiscal adviser to East Providence and Woonsocket.
“Man in Red Bandana,” is a charitable venture for Verdi Productions, according to DeNucci. All of the net profit from the film will be donated to the Welles Remy Crowther Charitable Trust, a philanthropic organization established by his parents to honor their son’s memory. The organization supports excellence in academics and athletics.
“Financially, this movie is not designed to make a lot of money for us,” said DeNucci. “We’re not really as concerned with that as we are with getting the story out to as many people as possible and raising as much money as possible for the Crowther foundation.”
In Rhode Island, “Man in Red Bandana” is showing at the Providence Place Cinema. Look for it in on-demand queues of area cable providers soon, the producers say.