MILITARY

Film about Vietnam paratroopers takes top honors

Steve DeVane
sdevane@fayobserver.com
Filmmaker Shawn Kelley, second from right, stands with his father, Jack Kelley, right; Bill Vose, left; and Mike Thibault at the Indigo Moon Film Festival's awards ceremony Sunday. [Steve DeVane/The Fayetteville Observer]

A documentary that looks at how paratroopers dealt with a horrific battle in Vietnam won the top two awards at the Indigo Moon Film Festival on Sunday.

“My Father’s Brothers” won the audience award for best documentary feature and shared the judge’s award in that category with “Rigged: The Voter Suppression Playbook.”

Several hundred people watched films during the Indigo Moon festival, which started Friday and ended Sunday. More than 60 films were shown at four sites in downtown Fayetteville.

Filmmaker Shawn Kelley, who grew up in Fayetteville, said he decided to make “My Father’s Brothers” after he asked his father, Jack Kelley, about the Vietnam War during a long car ride. The younger Kelley interviewed his father and seven of his fellow soldiers for the film.

Jack Kelley and two other veterans who were in the film — Mike Thibault and Bill Vose — attended the awards banquet Sunday at SkyView on Hay.

“It means the world to me that they were here,” Shawn Kelley said.

Jack Kelley, 82, and his wife, Lynn, still live in Fayetteville. He served as a minister at Northwood Temple Church after retiring from the Army as a lieutenant colonel.

Shawn Kelley, who lives in Charlotte, said he didn’t expect to win the awards. “My Father’s Brothers” is his first film.

“This is a great thrill for me,” he said. “Fayetteville is my hometown so this is very special to me.”

The awards also are meaningful because of Fayetteville’s connection to Fort Bragg and the military, Kelley said. He said it was an honor to present the veterans’ story.

“I think all veterans have a story that is worth telling,” he said.

Kelley said he wasn’t thinking about winning awards.

“To me, the awards are just icing on the cake,” he said. “I’m so happy that others find value in the story.”

“Portrait of a Woman at Dawn,” a film that was inspired by the “Me Too” movement against sexual assault, won the audience award for best narrative short film. Randy Goodwin, the film’s producer, said it fits with Indigo Moon’s effort to inspire change through films.

Goodwin, who lives in Warner Robins, Georgia, said the project was meaningful to him because he has two daughters.

“I don’t want them to ever have to say, ‘Me, too,’” he said.

The film is being shown in Belarus, India and Germany, Goodwin said.

“It’s gone worldwide,” he said. “Regrettably, it’s a worldwide issue.”

The festival’s organizers, Jan Johnson and Pat Wright, said the event is drawing quality films. They said some people with relatives in Fayetteville purposely plan a trip to the city when the festival is going on.

“We want every year to be bigger and better,” Wright said. “Not just bigger, but better.”

Staff writer Steve DeVane can be reached at sdevane@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3572.

INDIGO MOON FILM FESTIVAL AWARDS

Juried Awards

  • Best Animation: Irony
  • Best Narrative Short: In Time
  • Best Narrative Feature: Artik
  • Best Student Film: Dead Ends
  • Best Documentary Short: A Passion of Gold and Fire
  • Best Documentary Feature (tie): Rigged: The Voter Suppression Playbook and My Father’s Brothers

Audience Awards

  • Best Animation: Irony
  • Best Narrative Short: Portrait of a Woman at Dawn
  • Best Narrative Feature: Homeless Ashes
  • Best Student Film: Latteship
  • Best Documentary Short: A Passion of Gold and Fire
  • Best Documentary Feature: My Father’s Brothers