Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father Page #9

Synopsis: In 2001, Andrew Bagby, a medical resident, is murdered not long after breaking up with his girlfriend. Soon after, when she announces she's pregnant, one of Andrew's many close friends, Kurt Kuenne, begins this film, a gift to the child. Friends, relatives, and colleagues say warm and loving things about Andrew, home movies confirm his exuberance. Andrew's parents, Kathleen and David, move to Newfoundland, Canada where the ex-girlfriend has gone. They await an arrest and trial of the murderer. They negotiate with the ex-girlfriend to visit their grandchild, Zachary, and they seek custody. Is there any justice; is Zachary a sweet and innocent consolation for the loss of their son?
Director(s): Kurt Kuenne
Production: Oscilloscope Pictures
  1 win & 5 nominations.
 
IMDB:
8.6
Metacritic:
82
Rotten Tomatoes:
94%
NOT RATED
Year:
2008
95 min
Website
822 Views


more footage of him for you.

And, finally,

I found myself face-to-face

with the thing that had set me

on this journey

in the first place.

One of the major things

that Andrew and I did together,

or that we had in common,

was photography.

Sometimes

we'd bring the cameras out

and go around the lake

and by the pond,

and take some pictures

around there.

I told Andrew, I said,

"Listen, you're gonna have to

show me a few tricks or whatever

and show me

some of your pictures."

I'd still love to see

some of the pictures

that he took

through medical school.

I've never seen any of them.

Him and his dad had done quite

a bit of photography together.

Right after this happened,

I fired out an e-mail

saying we should try to think

of some sort of memorial award.

And I felt like

that would be something also

that his dad would really feel

honored by.

And then have a wall

in the medical school.

To be able to say

year after year, you know,

these are the winners,

and people could look

and be like,

"Wow," you know, "look at this."

I think I have a meeting

tomorrow morning

to participate

in the judging tomorrow.

And I find it interesting

that you say

that you hadn't heard that.

I wonder if part of it

was eventually maybe have

his dad independently say,

"Oh, who took this picture?

It's a really nice picture."

And have him say, "Oh, me!"

I don't know.

But it's something he did.

On July 18, 2003,

you turned one.

Shirley decided to hold

a birthday party for you

at McDonald's.

She started to open presents.

Well, he wasn't interested

in presents.

He wanted to get down.

So, when he got down,

he made for me.

Shirley was very, very angry.

So she said,

"He loves you more than me.

Why don't you take him?"

Zachary always,

from the time he could choose,

would choose Kate over her.

That was obvious, and

other people talked about it.

Kate is a warm

and loving mother.

She was a phony mother.

I love you.

Mommy loves you.

Yes, I do.

She knew the motions,

but there's no warmth in it.

Zachary.

I love you, baby.

Mommy loves you.

Mommy loves you.

She said that she had kids

and that she wasn't interested

in living with them either.

Andrew said she kind of

went off to medical school

and left them.

And she said that they lived

with their fathers,

and she said that children

were more trouble

than they were worth.

I believe she's using

her own children now

to manipulate the system

and to make Kate and David

suffer,

even if she goes to jail.

Fortunately,

there are enough people here

who are in the system,

the justice system,

the child-protection system,

that I know personally

who have told me

that that will not happen.

The next hearing

in the extradition process

was set for September 25th,

your dad's 30th birthday,

where she would likely be

re-incarcerated

and at last returned to the U.S.

for trial.

But, for now, it was time for me

to go home.

- I have to say bye-bye now.

- Gonna say "bye-bye"?

Bye-bye to Uncle Kurt?

You gonna give him a hug?

- Can I have a hug?

- Grab him and take it.

Was that funny?

Was that funny?

Bye-bye, sweet pea.

I'll see you later, buddy.

Well, you'll be a little bigger

next time I see you.

He had just completed

the child health checks

that they do.

He's ahead of his time.

He's doing great.

He's up to par on everything,

but he doesn't like to wave

goodbye.

- Bye-bye!

- Bye-bye!

One of them said, "That's fine,

'cause he's got lots of time

to learn that."

Is there anything you'd like

to say to Zachary?

I'm hoping I'm gonna have

all the opportunity

to say those things to Zachary.

We had been out.

We came back here.

There was a little card

in the door from Constable Walsh

saying, "Would we contact him?"

- I was here.

- Mark and I were here.

I was at my house.

I was home watching

the 6:
00 NTV news.

And the next thing, I saw a

picture of Shirley and Zachary

and saying

that they were missing.

And I was just screaming

at the top of my lungs.

And I immediately fell

to the floor.

So I immediately went over

to their apartment.

We came here.

So we got in the car

and went over there.

- Our vicar came by.

- I'll never forget that moment.

They're gonna find them.

They're gonna be okay.

You're overreacting.

You're gonna think the worst.

Look, you know,

she's probably gone for a night.

My first thought

was that she had left.

She had taken him and run.

She couldn't do that.

She couldn't possibly do that.

That was about 2 or 3 hours

of uncertainty.

The emotion was overwhelming.

They called us and told us

they were doing a search

of the beach

out in Conception Bay South.

I thought, "They're doing that

for a reason."

I had received a call.

"We're having a press conference

on the Turner case."

I went to Father Chris,

I just whispered to him,

"I think you better stay,

because I think I'm gonna be

coming back here

with some really bad news."

He told me

that they had found a baby.

Along with an adult.

I knew then

that there was two bodies.

"They're working

to identify the bodies."

I said,

"You got to come pick me up."

We came to the door, and it was

Jackie and Constable Walsh.

I thought, "Oh, my gosh,

somebody's with them now

trying to tell them."

We went in, and I told them.

And what I saw after that

I will never forget in my life.

Rage.

Absolute vicious rage.

Someone has done that

to someone you love.

If the person who did this

had been here, I'd kill them.

Period.

No questions. Kill them!

Strangle that f***ing b*tch

right here, right now!

Period.

No questions. Kill them!

And then we went to

have to identify him,

and we couldn't touch him

because they said

he was forensic.

He hadn't been

through the autopsy yet.

There's this table and sort of

white sheets up all around him.

With a white sheet over a body.

You could see over the sheets,

clearly, it was him.

It's really him.

And then Kate's legs quit.

She just went straight

to the floor.

David was lying on top of Kate

on the floor.

We managed to get them out. I

don't know how we did it, Kurt.

I don't know

how I got out myself.

That poor little baby.

A summary of the evidence

against Shirley Turner.

Part Two.

In July of 2003,

Shirley met a man at a bar

in downtown St. John's.

They went out twice

until his friends showed him

articles on the Web

saying she was accused

of killing her last boyfriend.

He told her he didn't

want to see her anymore.

She then called and left over

including one saying

that she was pregnant

and that he needed to...

Step up to the plate

and be a f***ing man.

She wasn't,

as her autopsy showed.

The night she killed you,

she made a phony phone call

from her apartment

to a friend's answering machine,

claiming to be

at this man's house with you.

She took your brother T.J.'s car

at about 11:
38 that night

and drove to the man's house.

She got lost along the way

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Kurt Kuenne

Kurt Kuenne is an American filmmaker and composer. He has directed a number of short and feature films, including Rent-a-Person, the YouTube film Validation, described as "a romantic epic in miniature", and the documentary Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father. more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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