Death of a title: the rise of meaning...

I remember sitting in front of my computer one evening back in December of 2005. What I began to write was the proposal that would redirect my life. I titled it The Forgotten War, detailing my desired intentions of embedding for a full tour as part of the 41st Brigade's deployment to Afghanistan. Twenty-one months later, my thoughts laced with the memories of a country some 8000 miles away, I picked up my glass of wine and sat quietly looking over the themes of a film that was beginning to take shape. After a short discussion, we agreed that the title The Forgotten War was no longer enough.

It began as a project to document war from a soldier’s point of view. Where we arrived was at a place much deeper and unending, drawing our focus to topics that are not only universal to war, but formative to all of humanity, both past and present. A story filmed in Afghanistan, but not limited by its politics or borders.

War is death, for it brings with it a transformation that leaves in its wake the shadows of pasts that once were. Every person who has ever entered into its lair has never returned unchanged. I am no exception.

Amidst the rubble of the aftermath of fighting, the flag -draped coffins, and the daily rhythm of leather boots and guns, was the death of a title and birth of something new. At my feet now lies the white board, covered with phrases and thoughts, our sketches of the voice that the film was struggling to find. I picked up the white cloth and erased The Forgotten War with a single swipe. Another memory that fell to the shadows of time.

I looked to the notes on the board behind my head, "Our failure is not that we forget, but that we don’t know." War is the myriad of extremes, pushing us closer to the roots of our very being. From within stirs the passions of love, hate, fear, courage,and ultimately chaos. For those that walk the timeless path of conflict, war is never forgotten but entombed within their souls for the remainder of their lives. It becomes a reminder of all that is and all that can be lost. A symbol of our inner struggle to exist, for war is what ultimately defines us and what we all are. The title was there before us. It spoke, we listened. At War.

www.atwarfilm.com

Copyright 2007, Scott Kesterson

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