Staten Island 9/11 attorney releases short film of terror tragedy

A Staten Island attorney has spent a lifetime surrounded by the tragedies the 9/11 terror attack wrought — and has transformed the never-ending grief into a haunting short film.

Matthew Baione, along with his wife Tina, will celebrate Thursday the screening of “8:48” at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, a feat they have dedicated to the thousands who lost their lives and their loved ones in the horror.

“The number one thing people say if they lost someone in the attack — they all say the same thing: ‘I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye,” Matthew, 34, a poet and attorney for those battling 9/11-related illnesses, told The Post.

“It’s true of me, it’s true of almost everybody. And that’s what ‘8:48’ is for.”

The two-minute-long film tells the story of a well-dressed man rushing to Staten Island’s iconic St. George Theatre for what he expects to be a normal event — only to find that “something’s not right.”

The unnamed man, played by “Uncut Gems” actor and 9/11 first responder Keith W. Richards, struggles to get inside as a woman dressed in black repeatedly croons “can’t be late, can’t be late.”

By the time Richards swings the doors open, the curtains drop on the woman, now dressed in white, before he can make it to the stage.

“That’s really supposed to just represent what happened on that day,” explained Tina, 39, adding that while the singer is meant to represent an angel, it should be left up to the viewer to determine what her fate might have been.

“Is she already gone? Is she supposed to represent something? Is that the dichotomy between the light and dark that came out of that day?” Tina continued.

“The song is inspired by 9/11, but I think it transcends that. In any tragedy, any event like that, there is a level of uncertainty and it’s personal and there’s individual stories within that. We were trying to represent that through the video.”

The haunting melody that plays throughout the short film was originally a poem written by Matthew several years ago after he took their young son Ralph to the Postcards, a waterfront memorial honoring the 274 Staten Island residents who were killed on September 11.

The pair came face-to-face with an engraving dedicated to a man who would have been his cousin’s father-in-law had he not died in the tragedy.

Matthew, who spent a career working on behalf of New Yorkers with 9/11 illnesses and living among New Yorkers who each had their own tragic stories had for years repressed the sadness and grief, but was suddenly overcome with emotion after realizing he was now at the age many of the victims were at the time of the attack.

That seed later sprouted into the poem “8:48” which Matthew wrote during an especially hard night putting Ralph to sleep.

“I had that moment of, ‘Well, this isn’t going to last forever. My son isn’t going to wake up in the middle of the night looking for me for the rest of his life and I should cherish this moment.’ That moment hit me like a waterfall,” Matthew recalled, noting that the names etched onto the Postcards “weren’t given an opportunity to say goodbye in the right way.”

Slightly differing from the short film, the poem details a couple who had a fight on the morning of Sept. 11. One leaves for work with a resolution to call for reconciliation at 8:48 that morning — an arbitrary time that was fatefully chosen two minutes after the first plane struck the North Tower.

While probably true for someone, the story was inspired by a “collection of tragedies” Matthew had been faced with throughout his work as an attorney. The couple are stand-ins for the 2,977 victims lost that day — and the thousands who have succumbed to illnesses from the horror since.

The poem was transformed into the hauntingly gorgeous song when Tina recruited singer and star of the short film, Ginger Winn, to bring the words to life. It was initially meant to be a gift for Matthew, but the couple set off on a new journey when they realized the treasure they had on their hands.

The Baiones established Keep Good Company Records and recruited Grammy-nominated producer David Baron, who worked with icons like Lenny Kravitz and Shania Twain, for the project, which was further bolstered by Richards — who brought his own experiences as a first responder to the heartbreaking film.

“He reached back into the way he felt that day running toward the towers and the way he felt digging in the pile,” Matthew said.

“The way he described it is this ‘urge to stop time.’ This song is produced and the short film is directed in a way that makes the viewer have that feeling of watching this movie — you want to bang on the glass and say, ‘Get out!’ That feeling of you wanting to tell the main character, ‘Call your wife! You don’t know what’s about to happen — get out of the building!’”

“That’s what we try to present in the composition of it, with the takeaway being, ‘Cherish the life you have.’ And the Latin phrase we use is Momento Mori — ‘Remember, you will die.’ Try to live that way in your approach to life and your loved ones.’”

Matthew and Tina also hope that the short film offers loved ones who lost victims in the tragedy some peace in knowing they could not have stopped the horrific tragedy from ensuing.

That guilt lives with thousands of New Yorkers even 23 years later, the couple explained.

“The ripple effect of it, it’s unfathomable. You can’t comprehend how many people were either directly or indirectly affected by 9/11,” said Tina, who had just arrived at her high school dance class when the first plane hit.

“Growing up, we were always surrounded by people who were directly affected by it because of our age, because of where we live. It’s just the nature of being a New Yorker. 9/11 changed the fabric of New York City and the fabric of our culture. There’s literally a before and after 9/11.”

All the proceeds raised from “8:48” will be donated to Sept. 11 causes, like the museum itself, the World Trade Center Health Program and more.