Reviewed by Elliot V. Kotek
(from the 2008 Cinequest Film Festival)
Director/Writer: Kurt Kuenne
Starring: David Bagby, Kathleen Bagby, Kurt Kuenne
With a movie that moves you long after the end credits and, I hope, moves you to action over depression, director/writer/editor/producer/etc. Kurt Kuenne has crafted a documentary that began as a legacy of a friend in the form of a letter to that friend's child, and that is powerful enough to endure as legend. Of course, the story is not that simple - the friend, Andrew Bagby, was murdered, shot five times by a one-time lover who couldn't accept their break-up, and it wasn't until four months after the murder (in which time the murderer had fled the country) that they found out she was pregnant with the deceased's child.
The filming that follows not only serves to preserve Bagby's memory, but to track the proceedings of Bagby's parents to: a) bring the murderer back to the U.S. to face trial, and b) to try to obtain custody of their grandchild growing up the spitting image of their slain son. And for those who don't know the rest of the story, it's best if I just tell you that you must see this movie. The music and editing styles used by Kuenne to tell his story are abrasive and may leave you angry, but the might of that emotional manipulation on this occasion may well be a good thing - and for sure seems like it's an honest expression of what the filmmaker, himself, must have been feeling throughout his production process. You simply must see this film.
That it will receive a release of sorts later this year is not only deserved, but would have been demanded had it not been forthcoming. Following the film's initial premiere at Slamdance in January, Cinequest Film Festival's programmers have procured what will no doubt be one of the documentaries to be deliberated over when the year's awards season arrives. And, with many in the San Jose audience having met and known the subjects of the film, Cinequest's sold-out screenings of the film will not easily be forgotten. It left me looking for the impossibility of marking the film above the highest grade available on the festival's voting ballot.
Dear Zachary, A Letter to a Son About His Father is the sort of documentary that, in delivering its debilitating news, ensures that every person in the theater leaves their seat with the strongest reminder to continue to cherish those they love, and to reminisce without mercy for those they've loved and lost. -MPM
Also see MPM's From the Filmmaker special contribution by Kurt Kuenne, "Raising the Dead."
The film has its own website, where you can keep up with screening times and other information - dearzachary.com - but I strongly recommend that you avoid reading too much about the film or its facts beforehand to enable Kuenne's work to inform and involve you of this unbelievable series of events.
UPDATE - UPDATE - UPDATE
Dear Zachary has been officially released on DVD in North America by Oscilloscope Laboratories (and in Canada by Mongrel Media). It can be ordered on the front page of www.dearzachary.com, on www.amazon.com, www.amazon.ca, rented on Netflix, Rogers Video Direct (Canada's Netflix), it should be in most Blockbuster Video stores and a host of other venues.
Arrangements have begun on distribution in territories the world over.
Dear Zachary has recently been nominated for Best Documentary by both the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Online Film Critics Society, who also nominated Kuenne for Breakthrough Filmmaker of 2008. The International Film Music Critics also nominated the musical score for Dear Zachary for Best Documentary Score of 2008. The response to the TV broadcasts on MSNBC in December and January was very strong; Kuenne reports that MSNBC told him that it beat out their direct competitors (CNN, Fox, etc.) all but one of the 6 times it has aired thus far, and was seen by between 1-2 million people as best as can be determined.
Kuenne will be hosting a screening of the film in Ottawa, Ontario on Wednesday, March 11th to which all Canadian Senators and Members of Parliament are invited. "I've been looking forward to this event for a long time, and anxious to see what happens," he says.
Photos courtesy of Cinequest and DearZachary.com
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