Glenn’s E-Newsletter/Week in Review (12/10/08)
Media Opportunity: Have You Paid Too Much Child Support or Alimony? Major TV Show Wants to Know
I was recently contacted by a producer for a major TV show who is looking for fathers who believe that they are paying too much in child support and/or alimony. If this is you, please click here.
The producer has said that it is possible to protect the anonymity of the individual appearing.
In the past many of our readers have appeared on TV shows or in the media via my referrals.
For example, in July a reader involved in a contentious custody battle went on the Mike and Juliet Morning Show and handled himself very well.
In January, a couple readers went on an Inside Edition special about struggling couples.
Last November, Fox Houston TV did a nice special on single fathers with custody who don't receive child support.
Again, if you're interested, please click here.
This information will not be shared with anyone except the TV producer.
Producer's new film full of 'fury at injustice done to best friend' gunned down by ex-girlfriend
All too often when a woman kills her husband or ex, the crime is trivialized or sensationalized, draining the crime of its horror and the victim of well-deserved sympathy. The new film Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father is a refreshing change.
Producer Kurt Kuenne is full of "fury at the injustice done to his best friend Andrew Bagby, a doctor who was set up and gunned down," apparently at the hands of an ex-girlfriend who he had broken up with.
Kuenne has made a film to memorialize his murdered friend and tell the world about the injustice his ex perpetrated. The legal system coddled the apparent killer, allowing her to be free on bail and have custody of their son, who she subsequently murdered.
From Christopher Smith's review of Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father:
Kurt Kuenne’s heartbreaking new documentary, “Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father,” features a story that, if fictionalized for, say, the purpose of a novel, likely would be labeled “outrageous” by an editor, stamped with a swift mark of rejection, and sent packing to the mailroom.
And it would be tough to blame the editor for doing so.
What occurs in this movie only could happen in real life — the frail walls of fiction couldn’t sustain it. The events that unfold are too bizarre. The way the story escalates is too steep. And when the floor does give way, the drop is too far to fathom.
This is the story of one man’s murder, and the fierce ripple of events that rang out in the wake of the five bullets that claimed his life. You sit watching the movie in a kind of haze, thinking that what happens here couldn’t possibly happen the way it happened, and yet it did happen. It’s staggering to believe it happened.
Unable to contain his rage, writer-director Kuenne doesn’t even try to conceal it. For a less-skilled director, this might have been a problem — the movie could have lost focus. The rage might have overwhelmed the facts.
But not so here. Kuenne’s fury at the injustice done to his best friend Andrew Bagby, a doctor who was set up and gunned down in Latrobe, Penn., by his ex-girlfriend Shirley Turner, doesn’t detract or make for a lesser movie. In fact, it allows for one of the year’s most powerful movies, with Kuenne achieving a keen, almost rabid focus as he zeros in on each of the many wrongs done to Bagby and his steadfast parents, David and Kathleen...
After murdering Andrew, the Canadian-born Turner fled to St. John’s, Newfoundland, where a battle for her extradition was fought in court over the course of several months.
Since it’s revealed in the film’s title, one complication can be noted — turns out that Turner was pregnant with Andrew’s child, whom she gave birth to and named Zachary. Upon learning of this pregnancy, David and Kathleen, who once considered suicide in the wake of Andrew’s death, left the U.S. and moved to Newfoundland.
There, they launched into one maddening fight for their son’s son. Since Turner was free on bail and had custody of Zachary, that meant they had to form a civil relationship with their son’s murderer in order to see Zachary and make sure he was safe from this obviously troubled woman. They did this day in and day out, while the Canadian court system routinely shamed itself in ways best left for the screen.
Surrounding all this isn’t just the ache of loss felt by Andrew’s parents, which is so palpable, it burns, but also of his many friends and family, who are interviewed in ways that not only show us who Andrew was as a man, but also in ways that move the story forward. And where that goes, I’m not going.
“Dear Zachary” is currently being promoted for Academy Award consideration, where it will be taken seriously. For those seeking a profound, unshakable movie, it’s worth a call to your local cinema to ask that they show it.
Video excerpts of the film can be seen here. To learn more, click here.
Some of the other issues I'm covering this week include:
Would a 40-Year-Old Man Who Statutorily Raped a 13-Year-old Girl Be Called Merely...
Jake's Closet--a Powerful Movie Depicting Parental Alienation (Video)
For Our Readers Shivering North of the Border (Video)
Dad Asked to Donate Organ for Son He Isn't Allowed to See
A False Accusation of Abuse Against a Father on NBC's ER
Why can't they stay little forever?
'My daughter-in-law turned back and spat out to me 'you will never see your grandson again''
A Response to Family Place Executive Director Paige Flink over DART Campaign (Part II)
I got tired of being her punching bag but she used to punch herself and dare me to call the cops'
A Response to Family Place Executive Director Paige Flink over DART Campaign (Part I)
A funny, sad look at marriage (Video)
A photo from the Great Depression
'How about discussing the millions of fathers who help make kids, then abandon them?'
A Brief Tribute to My Parents on Their 46th Anniversary
F4J Protester Mark Harris' Daughter: 'I'm Proud of My Dad'
To comment on what I've written or to join the lively discussion on my website, simply click on the "comments" link below each blog post on my website.
(To avoid the previous confusion, comments on the E-Newsletter itself are disabled--please comment on the individual blog posts themselves.)
Best Wishes,
Glenn Sacks
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