Review of Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father (2008) by Garry A — 28 Feb 2013

Dr. Andrew Bagby was shot dead by his ex-girlfriend. This documentary was made by Kurt Kuenne (one of Andrew's best friends) to document what happened next and to honour his friends life.

This documentary is made with a very shaky and amateurish style. It is also (understandably) a very biased account. To a certain extent both of these can be forgiven due to the passion shown throughout. Coming back to it being a biased account, I feel that you could argue this as the film doesn't look at Zachary's mother's mental imbalance too much, why she acted the way she did or the series of events from her perspective. I think this is largely due to Kurt being involved in the situation as well as Directing a film about it.

For me I feel that the government and the legal system were the real "monsters" here. If the mental health team were proactive, Andrew may still be alive. If the situation was concluded after Andrew's death then the situation would not have continued. This only goes to further highlight the achievements of Andrew's Mother and Father after the event - two truly incredible people.

All things considered, I think Dear Zachary is a very good documentary. It has as many twists and turns as any Hollywood thriller and is as disjointed as Kurt's emotions surely must have been. Many of the topics covered stayed with me for days after watching the film. All the things you may have read online about this film are true; it is extremely sad and moving. But I found it rewarding, thought provoking and inspirational too.