Return To Dak To
Director and combat medic Christopher Upham journeys back to vibrant contemporary Vietnam with four veteran comrades, who reveal how their Army unit, the 299th Engineers, were left at Dak To firebase in 1969 as bait for a much larger North Vietnamese Army force. Along the road back, these veterans confront feelings of abandonment by leaders and society as they reveal their sacrifices, shortcomings and pride of service amidst shifting bouts of PTSD. Finally returning to Dak To allows an unexpected closure for these men who find a way to voice personal traumas that connect to the universal sufferings of war.
Return to Dak To played more than twenty national and international film festivals and at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. The film is distributed educationally by Collective Eye at collectiveeye.org
Ongoing Projects
Current film projects include: Hanoi Poet, a documentary about Lannan Prizewinning Vietnam War poet Bruce Weigl, Dark Gate, a Noir feature set in San Francisco and Sidewinder Justice, an episodic black comedy about a messianic Iraq War vet come home to Arizona to wreak vengeance on war profiteers.