Dear Zachary

THE Documentary

Good films are a rarity in recent years. Hollywood is a business like any other with its main focus on profit margins. Because this is the case, there are a plethora of movies like Avatar, Transformers 1 & 2 (WORST movies ever), and Twilight. You are probably wondering why I decided to include Avatar with what are possibly the worst movies being both movies in the Transformers series and the Twilight series. The answer is as follows: First, while containing blatant undertones referencing Iraq and Bush, it has been completely over-hyped as cerebral and bold. Second, it was nothing more than cliché. When I think of these movies, the words accredited to Lars von Trier;

"American studios give money to directors to educate them away from their creative fingerprint, even if that's the reason they wanted them in the first place. I've avoided that fate by making movies here. You have to fight the urge to do a big action movie. You avoid 'Batman.' The bigger it is, the worse it is."

However, thanks to Netflix, I watched a documentary that shows good films DO EXIST. Dear Zachary: A letter to a son about his Father, a documentary film by Kurt Kuenne details the story behind the murder of Dr. Andrew Bagsby. The documentary is filmed in such a way that is essentially a letter to the son of the late Dr. Andrew Bagsby; Zachary. The director, Kurt Kuenne who is a childhood friend of Bagby, embarks on a trip that covers three nations in an attempt to interview friends and family of the aforementioned. The story of the murder is heartbreaking and this feeling is compounded as a result of injustices that follow the crime. This movie was tough to watch, but not in a bad way. It provokes anger, sadness, and sympathy. This is definitely a film that must be seen. Here are a few reviews that will do more justice than I possibly can. And to give you a taste, here is the trailer.