“Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About his Father” (2008),
by Kurt Kuenne, a film produced by MSNBC but distributed by Oscilloscope, has
the substance of an NBC Dateline crime story.
The filmmaker tells the tragic story of the parents of a
little boy, Zachary, intended as a scrapbook for the kid, whose own life would
be taken by his mother (in suicide) as well as his father’s. The film self-documents its own creation as Kuenne drives across North America, finding Newfoundland an interesting and dank place.
The narrative starts when medical student (or resident)
Andrew Bagby, childhood friend of Kuenne (they used to make home movies
together) breaks up with a girl friend Shirley Turner, who is apparently
pregnant with Zachary. Bagby puts her on
a plane from Pennsylvania back to Iowa, but is soon shot to death in a state
park near Pittsburgh.
Turner becomes the suspect but flees to Canada,
Newfoundland. Much of the film concerns
the legal technicalities about her bail and extradition. After the birth of
Zachary, Bagby’s parents (David and
Kathleen) spend their life savings to move to Canada and raise Zachary, but
then further tragedy ensues, and the nature of the film itself changes with it.
The film (93 minutes) has a fast pace; the narrator Kuenne talks fast, and there are
a lot of stills, ad the aspect ratio is only 4:3, as if for pre-wide-screen TV. But the film played in numerous festivals and
won awards and is well-liked by critics and audiences.
I watched the film on Netflix.
See the Wiki on Zachary Turner here.
The official site is here.
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