Joe saw the trailer for Dear Zachary and immediately wanted to see it. He says that I saw the trailer with him, but I swear, I have zero memory of it. Has he mis-remembered, or am I really getting that senile? In any case, we finished watching it last night; it was at once horrifying, gripping, and overwhelmingly sad.
Dear Zachary by Kurt Kuenne is “about the 2001 murder of his best friend, Dr. Andrew Bagby; Andrew was killed by his ex-girlfriend, who fled the United States for Canada, then discovered she was pregnant with Andrew's son, whom she named Zachary. Originally begun as a project for Zachary to learn about his father, the film follows Andrew's parents' battle to win custody of their grandson from the clutches of their son's murderer, and is an activist plea for reform to Canada's flawed bail system, which allowed Andrew's murderer to walk free while awaiting extradition and kill again.” (From IMDb)
It’s difficult to criticize a documentary like this, one that is passionate and has a bona fide cause to champion. Suffice it to say that the material did not need the overly-edited treatment that Kuenne gives it; horror movie tropes and comic talking heads seemed at times just inappropriate. Tiny gripes, really, in the grand scheme of things. This film is so honest and heartfelt, so gut-wrenching and infuriating, that it will stay with me for some time. See it, then write to your member of parliament about bail reform. What’s art for, if not to change the world?
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