Danilo Bach
(Writer)

Q: What drew you to the story of 14 HOURS?
A: It's an exciting, true story of unbelievable effort and heroism on an almost epic scale and needed to be told.

Q: In what way did the fact that it's a true story influence how you wrote the script?
A: I tried to stay as close as possible to the actual sequence of events and the personal stories that we had garnered from the various doctors, nurses, staff, civilians, volunteers and city officials involved. Because of the constraints of drama, many of the individual stories had to be combined and some things had to be rearranged, but every event in the film actually happened. I tried to use as much actual dialogue recalled by participants as possible.

Q: Where does the drama of 14 HOURS come from?
A: The drama comes from the unbelievable jeopardy placed on a level-one trauma hospital by a storm that brought flooding, absence of power, and nurses and doctors back to the basics of medical care. Together with the community, it was an unprecedented collective evacuation of the hospital.

Q: How would you characterize 14 HOURS?
A: 14 HOURS is an inspiring drama. It's the story of ordinary people amid disaster, overcoming adversity to save their fellow men, and doing it without a roadmap. Nothing like the evacuation of Memorial Hermann had ever been done before. Nurses, doctors and staff at Memorial Hermann made it up as they went along, relying on their training, instincts and incredible seat-of-the-pants teamwork.

Q: What would you want audiences to take away from the film?
A: I want audiences to see the ordinary heroism reflected in this film. There are incredible people, nurses and doctors alike, in hospital care - regular folks whose dedication and abilities are monumental when challenged. I was told repeatedly by hospital staff that they hope to God nothing like this ever happens again, but thank God they had the chance to do it.

Q: Did you speak to any of the original Memorial Hermann staff before writing the script?
A: Yes, I took a special trip to Houston to interview as many participants in the events of that night and the evacuation as I could. I also did phone interviews with those I wasn't able to see and more follow-up phone calls. Even then I feel we've only scratched the surface. The stories from that night and the days following could easily fill a series.