Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father

It started out as a remembrance for a son about his father and it became so much more.

I saw this film Sunday and it still resides in my heart and haunts me. This is the first documentary I have ever seen that has drawn me in completely, and made me feel as though I am part of the story and a friend to the victim. It was a roller-coaster of emotions and there were quite a few teary-eyed people by the end. I feel I had to give it a proper review, but like many have stated, it's hard to do so without ruining the effect the filmmaker intends. This story pulls you along and unfolds as it does for our narrator, the filmmaker, Kurt Kunne. His story is personal because he grew up with the central figure, Dr. Andrew Bagby.

Andrew's parents, David and Kate, whom I had a chance to meet with after the screening, are lovely people, and I instantly saw why they foster so much love and support throughout the film: They are genuinely kind people who give off a wonderful parental-vibe. They show so much love and hope in the face of almost insurmountable evil. You hold onto their love and hope through the last few minutes, and eventually you find what the narrator finds: inspiration.

The editing and the directing reveal a truly gifted filmmaker, Mr. Kunne, a superb storyteller, bounces back and forth between past and present events. He reveals what happens at several key points which leads us an ending you should rather just see than have me explain.

From what I've read there were several richly deserved standing ovations as the film ventured into the festival circuit. If you have a chance to see, "Dear Zachary," this film will be playing until Thursday of this week at the arc-light cinemas in Hollywood. The filmmaker, Kurt, said the film will be making a return to Hollywood in early November and shall be coming to New York City in late October, MSNBC will be premiering the film December 7th and the DVD shall go on sale some time in mid-FEBRUARY.

I suggest everyone pays their money to see this film for the sake of advocacy groups and to support bail reform in Canada. Although the legal system in Canada is put on trial in this documentary, it reveals a real problem with our own justice system here in the United States, and how some criminals are given preferential treatment over victims and their families' rights.

I cannot tell you how much this film has affected me. How truly inspirational I find David Bagby and Kate Bagby to be…

Please support Academy caliber documentaries, with a strong sense of heart, and a great message of hope. This is a wonderful, albeit tragic and yet inspiring film.

Wow, I certainly wasn't expecting it to be this overwhelming. It's the emotional equivalent of having your head kicked in against the curb.

I thought I knew where the story was going but I couldn't shake the sense of sinister dread. I didn't think the story could get any bleaker but then... Maybe I'm doing it a disservice but I would strongly recommend this film to anyone who isn't in an already too fragile state. Because once you invest your own emotions in the story, you are screwed - within minutes I went from sad to angry to shocked and depressed and back and forth etc.

That's quite an achievement. Yes, the film is flawed but you know what? I don't mind that films are flawed, it's the emotional punch that I'm going for. The film is made by someone on a mission (albeit a confused one at times) but the end result is a film that is raw and intimate.

Oh, there is a special place reserved in heaven for all the Bagbys. And a special place in hell for the murderer and the judge who set the murderer loose.

Dear Zachary Dir. Kurt Kuenne ***** "Perhaps it's done already, perhaps they have said me already, perhaps they have carried me to the threshold of my story, before the door that opens on my story, that would surprise me, if it opens, it will be I, it will be the silence, where I am, I don't know, I'll never know, in the silence you don't know, you must go on, I can't go on, I'll go on."-Samuel Beckett, The Unnamable That final sentence, from one of the great novels of all-time, works here as a description of the heart and soul of this film, the best I've seen all year. Kurt Kuenne sets out to find all there is to know about his murdered friend Andrew Bagby after talking with friends who knew parts about Andrew's life that he never told Kurt. Shortly after stating this endeavor it is revealed that the woman who killed Andrew is also pregnant with his son. Kurt then decides to make the film into a memorial to give to Andrew's son, Zachary.

This is a film that is a search for its filmmaker, a search which ultimately finds itself asking the most unanswerable of questions. The unfolding of the events surrounding the search cause Kuenne to revisit his approach, his interview subjects, and allows the audience a personal look into an artist trying to make sense of the impossible (in fact, the film was never meant to be released except to family members).

Nearly a decade in the making the film compiles years of interviews with dozens of people who knew and loved Andrew, as well as through a number of home videos. Part of makes this a stunning example of art as process, is the fact that Andrew starred Kurt's home made movies growing up, and we see footage from those films, where we see even then the use of film being used to make sense of the world.

The amount of footage, interviews, and information comes at you early and quickly. The audience becomes immersed in the lives of Andrew's family; knows the information when the family knows it, and experiences the events as if they were one of Andrew's friends. An outsider may have been tempted to manipulate the audience, but Kuenne's approach is earnest and admirably restrained. He obviously cares about his friends, and is nothing but charitable to them by his representation (or non-representation in some cases) in this film. That said, Kurt doesn't pretend not to be involved himself. He keeps in narration where he gets emotional. He lets you know that he is frustrated and furious, and that at times he doesn't know where to turn.

This is one of those rare films which is an experience. I cannot remember the last time I was so viscerally effected by a film. Not just in tears but going through a wide range of palpable feelings, some clear cut, some frustratingly ambiguous, and leaving me haunted, purged, shaken. The film allows us to experience with Andrew's parents a diverse and difficult range of emotions. You will be angry, sickened, hopeful, humored, devastated, inspired, awed, depressed, and everything in between. At times you'll want to throw up your hands and say: "I can't go on!" It shows us humanity at its most evil, yet, without being sentimental, shows us how life can go on in the face of incomprehensible horror.

I don't know if I've seen another film which so effectively conveys the impact of the loss of a human life. A shot early on in the film catches a quick glimpse of ripples in a water, and this film looks at those ripples instead of focusing on the initial cause of those ripples.

And in the end, when the film comes back to the filmmaker, on his experience and his journey, in a recap of what we've experienced with humanity in microcosm throughout the film, its a devastating turn which displays the brilliance in the film's structure, despite it appearing a bit haphazard on the surface, all along.

I don't know whether to tell you to read more about the film or not. I've tried not to tell too many details because for full effect, and to do justice to the filmmakers experience you need to let this film wash over you. But I also don't know if some of the more sensitive viewers will make it through this film unprepared. Maybe this will suffice: this is not an easy film; the best never are. But like Becket's Trilogy, by looking through at life through the most hopeless of situations, somehow those who experience the work come out stronger, more human. Victor Frankel's early title for Man's Search for Meaning was "A Case for Tragic Optimism." That is this film.

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It's been about 4 years since I first watched this documentary, and I can honestly say that it still haunts me to this day. The unfolding of this story is so impactful. So raw. So heartbreaking.

Do yourself a favor and DO NOT look up anything about this case before or during your watch.

Paradise Lost has always been my favorite documentary series of all time. But this one is either tied for first or a very, very close second.

This is a truly devastating documentary all around, but their story is so incredibly important for the world to know. I promise, this documentary and story will stick with you for the rest of your life.

Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father is easily one of the most traumatic films I've ever seen. Its not technically the most impressive documentary film, but the subject matter is powerful-enough that you cannot help but be deeply impacted by the story. I've hesitated to suggest it to a few of my more fragile friends because it is one of those films that can leave you in an emotional funk for days afterward. Its that powerful of a film, but not for the faint of heart. I personally would not watch it again, though I'm grateful that the filmmaker stuck with the project through it all and did not give up, as many would have. I'm grateful this story was told, even if it was painful to experience.