Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son about his Father
(a documentary by Kurt Kuenne)
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| Andrew Bagby |
Dear Zachary is the true story of Andrew Bagby, his best friend Kurt, and every single person Andrew knew before his shocking murder. After ending a bizarre relationship with his girlfriend, Shirley Turner, Andrew was ready to get back to his life practicing medicine in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Not even 24 hours after the break up, Andrew was found murdered in a nearby park. He was shot 5 times by Shirley. Soon after her arrest in Canada, Shirley announced that she was pregnant with Andrew’s child.
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| Filmmaker Kurt with Zachary |
Andrew’s death was a tremendous tragedy, affecting everyone he had ever known. In his friend’s honor, filmmaker and director Kurt Kuenne dreamt of a tribute that recorded and memorialized everything anyone could ever know about Andrew and the amazing life he lead. It was his hope to one day pass his friend’s history to his unborn son he left behind, Zachary. With this idea in hand, Kurt left on a journey for which he had no specific time-line or end in mind. He would film until there was nothing left to learn about Andrew.
He had no idea the painful, beautiful, heart wrenching story that would unfold.
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| Andrew's parents with Zachary |
For anyone who believes human beings are noble god-like creatures, with resilient hearts and minds,
Dear Zachary will be the most riveting, Earth shattering film you’ll ever watch. And you’ll only watch it once, despite the fantastic musical scores, montages, and beautiful words spoken to a son about his father. It’s the worst story ever told in the most fantastic, beautiful, graceful way by fantastic, beautiful, graceful people. Though
Dear Zachary illustrates humanity in its most disturbing hour, it also illustrates humanity at its most profound, remarkable and resilient.
-Sarah
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This is the only film Netflix has ever recommended to me with a 5 star rating according to my rating interests. Netflix hit the nail on the head and I also give this film 5 stars.
This is one those stories that makes you wonder
why.
Why oh why oh why? It's terrible enough of a story to lose your faith. For me, it confirms that we humans are alone. There is no higher power. There is no one watching over us. There is nothing out there. It's just us and that's all. Maybe that in itself is a tragedy. But the brighter side to a story like this and the revelations like mine, is that humans are awe inspiring. The resilience of the human heart is better than any desperate prayer ever to a pretend man in the sky. It makes me wonder why humans create gods to worship, when we are god-like ourselves.
Watch
Dear Zachary and learn something about your own humanity.
