Our Boy in Kandahar is a documentary film that examines the long-term impact of America’s longest war through the experiences of one soldier from rural California.
During the Great Recession, Rueben Lopez left his struggling community in California’s Sacramento Valley and became an infantry soldier with the Army, seeking a better life through service in the War on Terror. In 2011, he deployed with the 10th Mountain Division to Afghanistan’s Kandahar Province, where his unit was assigned to an area known as the birthplace of the Taliban. Months of skirmishes with insurgents led to a catastrophic incident that illuminated the everyday violence faced by troops and the people of Afghanistan, and that forever changed Lopez’s family, his fellow soldiers, and his hometown.
Constructed from intimate interviews gathered over a 9-year period, Our Boy in Kandahar explores the ways in which the experiences of war and economic hardship can trap societies and individuals in prolonged destructive patterns, whether in the form of extremism, violence, or self-harm. Featuring the perspectives of leading experts on Afghanistan, military affairs and mental health, the film also seeks to help viewers understand the ways in which relationships forged through shared struggle can help those healing from the moral and spiritual wounds of trauma.
Our Boy in Kandahar was first shown as a short film in progress at the Nevada City Film Festival in 2017. Small-scale, grassroots screenings of a one-hour rough cut later took place at VFW halls, public libraries and other locations throughout the U.S. The final cut of the film, completed at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, premiered on Veterans Day 2020 on KVIE, a PBS station in Sacramento, Calif. Additional broadcasts took place in the U.S. and Canada in the fall of 2021 via the PBS station WPBS, Watertown, New York.
PRODUCTION TEAM:
Patrick House, Camera and Voiceover: Patrick House is a veteran who grew up on the South Side of Chicago, where his father directed a local television show on life in the community. Following in his father’s footsteps, House began his own film career while serving as a mass communications specialist in the Navy. During his time in the military, he deployed to Afghanistan, coincidentally to the same area where Lopez served, and filmed much of the standout archival footage that appears in Our Boy in Kandahar. House is now based in New York, where he works in film as a writer and director. His commercial work has appeared on television nationwide, and his films have been featured at festivals including the Dumbo Film Festival, the Atlanta Comedy Film Festival, and the San Francisco Black Film Festival.
Scott Bransford, Producer, Director, Writer, Editor and Camera: Scott Bransford is a writer and multimedia producer from California’s Central Valley, where both sides of his family have worked in agriculture for generations. Bransford’s work in journalism typically focuses on political, social and environmental issues facing those living in the American West. In addition to his work for local and regional newspapers in California, he has freelanced for international outlets including The New York Times, Reuters, The Guardian, and Los Angeles Review of Books. Our Boy in Kandahar is his first documentary film project.
Kevin Crawford, Audio Engineer and Sound Designer: Kevin Crawford is a San Francisco Bay Area-based mixer and sound designer who has spent more than a decade working on sound for a wide variety of projects, ranging from commercials to documentary films and dramatic features. His work on set and in post-production studios has appeared on outlets including HBO and ESPN, as well as in film festivals including SF Urban Film Fest.
Ross Hammond, Composer: Ross Hammond is a Sacramento-based guitarist with an acclaimed body of work rooted in a variety of musical genres, ranging from jazz, folk and blues to spirituals. He frequently collaborates with other local artists, blending his own approach to music with the sounds of a wide variety of traditions. He has been described by Bill Meyer of Downbeat magazine as a musician whose songs highlight “rustic themes that meditate upon place and personal connection.”
Alan Korn, Legal: Alan Korn is a Bay Area-based attorney specializing in media, copyright and First Amendment issues. Korn has worked extensively in community media as an attorney, producer and musician, and many of his clients have been local artists from the Bay Area. A short list includes Youth Radio, Flipper and The Avengers.
Kent Pritchett, Colorist: Kent Pritchett has more than two decades of experience as a colorist, working for major production companies including Lucas Film/ILM, Disney Feature Animation, Dream Works Animation, and Autodesk Media and Entertainment. He has additional experience working on a wide variety of independent features, television shows and commercial projects. In addition to his current work at Color A Go-Go in San Francisco, he is the senior colorist for MasterClass.
Kim Salyer, Colorist: Kim Salyer is one of the Bay Area’s leading post-production experts. Working with Video Arts and Color A Go-Go, Salyer has helped prepare hundreds of feature films and documentaries for the screen, resulting in more than a dozen Academy Award nominations, Emmy Awards and Peabody Awards.
Loren Sorensen, Online Editor: Loren Sorensen is an editor with experience on projects ranging from direct-to-web campaigns to major documentary projects. A short list of his clients includes the NFL Network, PBS and Rhino Records. He has worked on films including Who Killed Lt. Van Dorn, The Kill Team, and Mifune: The Last Samurai.
POST-PRODUCTION CONSULTANTS
Karin Chien: Karin Chien is a leading independent film producer and distributor of international film projects. She has produced ten feature films starring women and people of color, including the Sundance Audience Award Winner Circumstance and Stones in the Sun, the winner of the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival Best Director Special Award. She is also a four-time nominee of the Independent Spirt Awards, and the founder and president of dGenerate Films, a leading distributor of independent Chinese cinema.
Jon Ayon Alonso: Jon Ayon Alonso is a filmmaker from Los Angeles who first began his career making music videos for punk and indie bands in the Pacific Northwest. A graduate of California State University, San Francisco’s School of Cinema, his acclaimed projects have won awards including a San Francisco Emmy and an honor from American Zoetrope. His film Sombras (Shadows) premiered at HBO’s New York Latino Film Festival and screened at Sundance in 2018. He has also worked as an editor on films including Hoodie, The Celine Archive, and Alice Street.
Omar Gonzalez: Omar Gonzalez is an Army veteran who served as a squad leader in Afghanistan prior to beginning a career in audio post-production. A graduate of the film program at California State University, San Francisco, he has worked and interned for post-production houses including Roundabout Entertainment, Inc., Polarity Post-Production, and Berkley Sound Artists.
EXPERT VOICES
Elliot Ackerman: Acclaimed author Elliot Ackerman is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who has served in Iraq and Afghanistan, experiencing war as both an infantry soldier and as a special operations officer. From 2012 to 2013, he also served as a White House fellow during the administration of President Barack Obama. Ackerman has published four books of both fiction and non-fiction including Green on Blue, Dark at the Crossing and Red Dress in Black and White. Among other literary honors, Green on Blue was a New York Times Editor’s Choice in 2015, and Dark at the Crossing was a 2017 National Book Award finalist. His military honors include the Silver Star, the Bronze Star for Valor, and the Purple Heart.
Adrian Bonenberger: Adrian Bonenberger is a writer and 10th Mountain Division veteran whose work has appeared in publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy and Forbes. Bonenberger, who served as an infantry captain in Afghanistan, also published a book of war memoirs entitled Afghan Post in 2014, and he co-edited a 2016 anthology of writing by War on Terror veterans titled The Road Ahead. Bonenberger is the editor of Yale Medicine Magazine and director of social media for the Yale School of Medicine, a leading institution on veterans’ issues.
Shah Mahmoud Hanifi: Shah Mahmoud Hanifi is a professor of history at James Madison University whose research interests often focus on the role that mobile populations, colonialism and environmental transformation have played in shaping the history of Afghanistan. His books include Connecting Histories in Afghanistan and Mountstuart Elphinstone in Afghanistan. He has also contributed chapters to books including Under the Drones: Modern Lives in the Afghanistan-Pakistan Borderlands.
Laura Rauch: Now working as a national security advisor, Laura Rauch spent several years as a journalist covering the War on Terror. As a writer and photographer for Stars and Stripes, she spent a year covering the deployment of Rueben Lopez’s Army unit, an assignment that followed extensive work as an Associated Press combat photographer. Her work in conflict areas including Iraq and Bosnia has garnered awards including the Society of Professional Journalists’ Sigma Delta Chi award and the President’s Medal from the Associated Press Managing Editors. Rauch, who holds a graduate degree in public policy from Harvard University, has worked for two U.S. senators on defense issues and as a senior professional staffer in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Nancy Sherman: A leading expert on military ethics and mental health, Nancy Sherman is a Distinguished University Professor and Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University. Her extensive work on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is informed by her unique background as a scholar of philosophy, an ethics professor at the U.S. Naval Academy, and as an observer to the Vice Chief of the Army’s Suicide Review Board. Often focusing on how the ancient philosophy of stoicism continues to influence military culture, Sherman has written books including Stoic Warriors and Afterwar, which explores the forces that help veterans overcome the hidden wounds of war.
POST-PRODUCTION ASSISTANTS
Sean Johannesen, Krista De Los Reyes, Sami Soto and Jennifer Weddle.
PROJECT SUPPORTERS
Special Thanks: Colleen Beahan, East Bay Blue Star Moms Chapter 101, Geoff and Jen Hulbert, Georgeanne and Robert Hulbert, Kevin Jeon, Susan Preneta, Rocco’s Bar and Grill, Sajit Singh, Sarvan Singh, Sudwerk Brewery, Mike Blanchard and the Californios, OMAR GONZALEZ, A LAW CORPORATION, VFW Post 2441, and The Sacramento Valley Museum and staff.
Additional Support From: Erika M. Anderson, Jack Begley, Brendan Boyle, Cindy Gobel, Joel Gordon, Cy Hawkins, Owen Marshall, Erik Noftle, The Morning Star Packing Company, Niraj Raj, Luke and Erin Steidlmayer, Tay Wiles, and Elizabeth and Charles Yerxa.
With Gratitude To: All participants and their families, all test audiences, American Legion CA Post 218, the Bransford family, Beau Baca, Jason Cabrera, Buster Diggs, Col. Kenneth Mintz, Dale Morrison and family, Craig Mullaney, Tomoko Hosaka Mullaney, Elisa Hough, Miguel Lopez, Ocean Restaurant, Pizza Factory of Winters, Calif., Duawin Park, Stevie Ramirez, Laura Villevielle, VFW Posts 2441 and 863, Duncan Wardlaw, Mark Wyman, The Nevada City Media Maker Residency and the University of Nebraska at Omaha Afghanistan Studies Center.
HELP FUND THE PROJECT: Our Boy in Kandahar is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions for the charitable purposes of Our Boy in Kandahar must be made payable to Fractured Atlas only and are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law. The production team is grateful for all offers of support, but must respectfully decline some donations, including those from political groups and religious organizations, as well as film participants and their family members. Donations do not guarantee creative input on the project. To contribute, follow this link to the project page at the Fractured Atlas website.
For further information on events and how you can get involved with this community-funded, non-commercial project, please follow our progress on social media or contact the production team at the e-mail address below.