Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/315195
MAY 21-27, 2014 UCW 9 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Hornets Nest by MICHAEL SMITH On Friday, May 23, a film called The Hornet's Nest will open in theatres nationwide. The Hornet's Nest is a unique project produced by journalist Mike Boettcher and his son Carlos Boettcher, along with David Salzberg and Christian Tureaud. The film is set in the combat zones of Afghanistan after 2009 and features the men and women of the United States Armed Forces. The film is unique in that it utilizes real footage, sight and sound, taken by Boettcher and his son while they were embedded with the U.S. Armed Forces in Afghanistan. Boettcher is an embedded reporter that has covered news from some of the most dangerous areas that the 20 and 21st centuries have had to offer. His work in reporting the news has also led him to actually become the news on occasion. He was the victim of a kidnapping in El Salvador in 1985, survived bombings in Iraq in the early 2000s, and has had more bullets fly by him than can be counted. The danger that Boettcher has found himself in is a direct result of his methods for reporting. SGM James Popp, a veteran of Afghanistan, described the methods of Boettcher and his son in saying, "We have all seen journalists and (stuff) over there… they never leave the FOB. Not these guys, they were in the mix." Journalists have made movies before, but none have ever described a motivation for filmmaking like Mike Boettcher, "When 9/11 occurred I felt a great amount of guilt about it. I decided that all that investigation, everything we had worked on, we had failed. I felt that I had to be there with those men and women who were paying the price for those failures … The only way to do it is to stay there for a year, then another year and then more time. I felt that if we are going to send these men and women into combat, someone should be there to tell their story throughout, not just for a little bit … My son and I became those guys." SGT Elbert Taboada, a childhood friend and "blood brother" to SGT Ofren "A.C." Arrechaga who is featured in the movie and was killed in combat, describes the movie as, "a mix of emotions … I have to agree with what (Boettcher) says, it's not about winning or losing. We fight for the guy next to you …The Hornet's Nest did justice to A.C. and what we do over there." When asked about what he would like to come from this movie, Mike Boettcher was very clear, "My goal is to connect the 99 percent of the American public that doesn't really feel the pain of war with the less than 1 percent that does … This is not a film about war; it is a film about family. It is set in wartime, but it is the story of the love of a family. The family you have out there, that is all you have got." He went on to say, "The American public, having learned the lessons of Vietnam, when they see a soldier go up to them and say 'thank you for your service.' But they really have no idea of what that service was. After they see this film, the next time they go up to say thank you for your service, they will know exactly what they are thanking them for. They'll want to hug them and not just thank them." For me to attempt to review or criticize this movie is to attempt to review or criticize the men and women who are featured. I will not do that; instead I will say that when I left his movie I had a feeling of understanding. I felt that I could look at a solider suffering from PTSD, with a Traumatic Brain Injury or with any other wound and feel more than pity. I could look at those men and women and have a feeling of compassion that comes from being witness to what they have really been through. Find out more at www.facebook. com/TheHornetsNestMovie. Mr. Ramon Yarborough & Mrs. Virginia Yarborough Holt Oil Company Sans Construction & H & L Bell Construction MICHAEL SMITH, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@upand- comingweekly.com. 910.484.6200.