Review of Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father (2008) by Niklas S — 21 Feb 2009

I only knew Andrew Bagby for 7 minutes before breaking down and crying. This staggering and heart shattering documentary is a man's gift to his friend's son, Zachary, a friend that was murdered by his ex-girlfriend who was pregnant with the child.

Director Kurt Kuenne began filming testimony from his friends, family, colleagues and anyone else he could find that had met and loved Bagby as a memorial to his lost friend, in hopes the son he never met would see it and learn everything about his father.

With frenetic editing and an insane amount of information gathered, Kuenne pays immense attention to detail. Every photo, phone conversation, government document, video for every topic discussed, you'd think Bagby was followed around with cameras his whole life.

He narrates the whole film as if he's speaking to Zachary personally, and gets the interviewees to introduce themselves to him. The ex-girlfriend, Shirley Turner, a medical school colleague, was beyond mentally ill.

Eight people had restraining orders against her, she threatened to commit suicide on a boyfriend's porch, and.. the whole driving 16 hours to kill Andrew Bagby. What sickened me was Bagby's parents had to let her see Zachary, and spend time with her.

How would you go about not killing the person who killed your son when they're in your house? About two-thirds of the way through, out of nowhere we learn that Turner kills herself and Zachary by jumping off a cliff.

The film gets darker than it already was, and stops centering on a letter to Zachary about his father, but expands on how Andrew's parents became activists against Canada's judicial system. In-depth news coverage of their battle, with Keunne still narrating directly to Zachary.

This was the saddest film I've ever seen, and could be the best documentary I've ever seen. I broke down atleast 5 times throughout, and during the entirety of the end credits. Andrew Bagby reminded me a lot of my own father, which tore me apart.

It's a travesty that Zachary won't be able to learn about his father, because if his father had this much of a effect on me I could only imagine how he'd take it..