Birth of the Idea

In the fall of 2025, I was browsing through some old short stories and was revisiting some old Ernest Hemingway classics. One of them stood out, the short story "The Old Man at the Bridge." It's a VERY short, short story, originally published in 1938, and takes place during the Spanish Civil War.

Photo: Ernest Hemingway

Photo: Spanish Civil War begins, 1936

The story is simple enough: a small group of soldiers is babysitting a bridge, reporting on enemy troop movements, when they happen across an old man. The old man is a displaced civilian, forced to flee his home during the war, unsure of where he will go. As the men begin speaking to him, he relays his worries - he really has no politics, and is mostly worried for his animals, asking himself, what will become of them? The soldiers try to provide some comfort, explaining the cats are feral and will survive, and his birds will simply fly away. But they can't speak for some of the other animals who they imagine will not survive, and it's a tragic rumination on the unintended victims of war and violence. It's an incredibly powerful message wrapped in a really small package.

I read the story years ago, and it had always stuck with me. Reading it again, now through the lens of life experience and having served in the military myself, I was inspired. I wanted to do a contemporary re-imagining of that story, set in modern day Iraq during Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR), c. 2016-2017. I envisioned a rough outline for a scenario that pretty much matched up with the Hemingway story, and it was uncanny how easy it translated. I think that was the wisdom of the message, how a story written in 1938 about such a totally different conflict, in such a different world and era, could translate to a reality almost 80 years later.

Photo: Spanish Nationalists,1936

Photo: US Army 82nd Airborne, CJTF OIR, 2017

I knew it was a story I couldn't just tell myself with no prep or development process - something like this, I wanted to get it right. I'm an Air Force guy, what do I know about special operations and ground level recon missions? I reached out to a good friend of mine, Alejo R, who is a current Navy reservist and SWCC operator (SWCC stands for Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewman, and is kind of a sister function to SEALs. They go through the same training together and then split midway through, and both are part of the Naval Special Warfare community). Alejo and I go way back, both having attended the LAPD police academy together where we became fast friends. I asked him if he could advise on some of the story, how an encounter like this might play out, and just overall lending some realism and accuracy to the story.

I did some more research and churned out a first draft of the screenplay. Alejo gave it a read, and called me and said, "Chris, you need to talk to my buddy Sandy. He was actually there in the exact area you wrote about, he was literally running that exact mission." So he linked me up with his buddy Sandy, another NSW team guy, and we started getting into it. Sandy was taken aback after reading the script. Little did I know, but I had inadvertently written a story that was maybe 85% accurate as to what he experienced on his deployment. We sat down a few times and got into the nitty gritty, nailing the military accuracy, all the little intricacies and cultural details, the whole nine. What we came up with was a very accurate to reality contemporary re-imagining of the Hemingway short, entitled "Road to Al-Qa'im."

THE CAMPAIGN

This is the reason we're here -- movies don't come cheap or easy, and they only work if there's an audience and if there's some money behind it. If you're reading this, you ARE that audience, so we're looking to you to help get this off the ground, so I wanted to lay out a timeline of how this will work:

Pre-Production - NOW

I'm all about whiteboards...

We are locking down locations, scouting, pulling permits, securing military equipment, uniforms, gear, costumes, makeup, production insurance, hotel arrangements, rehearsal spaces, you name it. We need to put down cash early on these, which is why we need to raise funds as soon as possible during our pre-planning stage.

Production - June 5-7 Shoot

Shoot dates are set, and we'll be shooting in the high desert. We are still scouting a few locations which give a realistic western Iraq vibe. Since this is going to be in the beginning of June in the desert, in a place with very few nearby resources, we are basically planning an expeditionary style deployment in a truly austere environment. I know from my planning times in the military, there's A LOT that goes into it. Funds will be spent on deploying a staging area. We'll need trailers with AC to keep people cool and out of the elements where possible, food, drinks, mobile bathrooms, emergency vehicles and first aid resources, etc.

One of the areas we are scouting...

Post-Production & Completion

Once we shoot, I'll be editing the film and polishing it up. This is where it comes to life! Post-production will require color grading, music, and SOUND DESIGN (huge element for this particular story). My goal is to have a final cut by end of the summer, so we can begin submitting to festivals the latter half of the year and getting the film out there. Post-Production and festival submissions are pricey, but a very necessary part of this. That is the part that will lend the legitimacy and proof of concept towards a feature version of this film. The short film will be a small microcosm of the bigger story, and I think people are going to want to see more of this story, so this is where the greater vision will shine when we take this on the road.

The funds we raise in this campaign will be spent throughout the duration. The $10,000 goal is a starting point. We'll need to raise beyond that, and as I've laid out above, there will be significant additional costs. I'm anticipating the overall spend on this as flirting around the $30,000 level by the time all is said and done. We'll be providing updates throughout the production and the festival run via our Instagram pages and Seed & Spark page to keep you all spun up, with red carpet and festival photos, premiere details, BTS pics and video, etc. An audience who wants to help see this through is what will help get us there!

Why Me? Why us? Why this team?

For those of you who know me, you know when I commit to something, I go full send. Since I was a kid, I somehow had this wild ability to get people on board with whatever shenanigans I could come up with (middle school talent show, gorilla costumes anyone? If you know, you know...) Even in college, I managed to make The Clownmaker an event to remember...ask me about it, one of my early short films about a circus clown with hip hop freestyle rapping aspirations...dynamite.

Ahhhh, college filmmaking at its finest...a screenshot from my old classic, The Clownmaker

I've come a long way since those early college days, I think we all have. I'm taking that drive and multiplying it by years of life experience, relationships, and directing it towards a story that is meaningful not only to me, but to those I hold dear, my brothers in arms. I know storytelling, I know the craft, and we've got a team of professionals who bring creative drive, vision, and know-how to the project. This is our story to tell.

Historical Context

Photo: ISIS propaganda photo, ISIS fighters in Iraq, c. 2015

In 2014 as the U.S. scaled down its presence in Iraq, ISIS was spreading through the Middle East, bringing untold chaos and brutality to the region in their efforts to establish a regional Caliphate. During this process, they took control of vast expanses of Iraq and Syria, places in Iraq we had fought so hard to control, places like Ramadi and Fallujah and Mosul. All the progress we had made, undone by yet another brand of hatred.

The U.S. decided to intervene, with broad support to fight back against ISIS. We hatched a rough plan and decided to launch a fight in partnership with the Iraqi army to take back their country. The plan was simple on the surface - the conventional Iraqi Army would lead the fight, and the United States would support in an "Advise and Assist" role, providing training, air support, and fire support (artillery). Of course, missiles and bombs don't find terrorist targets all by themselves; somebody has to be on the ground to provide intelligence and direct those fires. That's where our special operators come in.

Photo: F/A-18's launch from USS Carl Vinson during OIR battlefield shaping operations

Photo: MARSOC Marine in Northern Iraq

In the beginning, commanders in the CENTCOM theater had to direct whatever available resources they had to Iraq, so it started out as a hodgepodge of special operations forces across the branches, mostly a combination of Marine Raiders (MARSOC), Navy SEALs, and Army Special Forces (Green Berets), all trained in direct action and forward observer capabilities. Oftentimes, they would deploy on recon missions, sitting on an observation post, utilizing drones for surveillance and target acquisition. They would usually deploy with an Iraqi Special Forces soldier, who served as both a liaison between the regular Iraqi Army and the U.S. capabilities that would provide air and fire support, as well as doubling as interpreters for potential contacts with any locals and intelligence gathering. Oftentimes, the teams would go out on these missions for a few days at a time, and they would be responsible for identifying and calling in strikes in coordination with Iraqi Army operations.

The fight itself originated in the south and towards the center of the country. The Iraqi army in Baghdad first began by pushing ISIS out of central areas like Ramadi and Fallujah, and then pushed their way north along the west bank of the Tigris River. During their advance, ISIS would retreat, not wanting to engage in combat in open terrain, where they were far outmatched, instead preferring to fight in dense urban environments. As they fled, they would set IED's and ambushes to slow the Iraqi Army advance. During all the chaos, the Iraqi Army was displacing countless civilians along the way, who were caught between the brutality of ISIS, as well as the steamrolling approach of the conventional army forces.

During the push north along the Tigris, it was estimated that over 100,000 Iraqi civilians were displaced, causing a massive refugee crisis. Iraq, being such a tribal country, made this even harder to manage; refugees weren't trusted in the south, as they were believed to be ISIS sympathizers. In the east, the ethnic Kurds didn't trust them. In the north, that's where ISIS was being pushed and had a stronger foothold. And then you had the United States, who had to partner with all these various groups, who all had the same goal of defeating the ISIS threat, but with vastly competing ideologies and interests. It's a notoriously complex part of the world.

Fast Forward

We spent a good bit of time in development, and then began the process of moving into pre-production, assembling a cast, securing resources, location scouting, bringing the main creative team together, etc. Then low and behold, we launched into a war with Iran. As a service member, with several friends who are still in, and as someone who has worked on the Iran problem set and deployed to that part of the world, it's hard to say there isn't a growing sense of unease, a worry that we may be treading on familiar territory in committing to a lengthy and dangerous mission with unclear objectives.

So much of our cast and crew are either current or former service members, members of law enforcement or first responders. We're all people who have had these hard conversations with our families, have lost friends, have shot or been shot at, have had to deal personally with the consequences of violence, and we're all part of a generation that was in many way shaped by our outings in the Middle East. Our current direction is not something we take lightly, for better or worse, on whichever side of the political aisle we may be.

Photos from my deployment to Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia in 2022, supporting air operations over Iraq and Syria during OIR and Spartan Shield. Overall, a successful deployment, made some meaningful contributions, and learned a lot about myself and the world. These are the experiences that shape us.

What I find most interesting about this project, is that through history, there have been very few groups who could be considered outright bad, evil, no questions asked, full-stop, where no matter where you fall politically, everyone can generally agree on that reality. One of those groups are the Nazis. I think that other group is probably ISIS. Everyone pretty much agreed outright that ISIS needed to be defeated, and it was worth a military excursion to ensure that could be accomplished. And even amidst that moral certainty, there is still a human cost that when considered, and when you really examine the nuances of how a group like that could come to exist, makes it much more a of a moral gray area than most might initially think.

And this is why it is almost serendipitous that we would be developing this project when we are. This story directly examines the moral gray areas and unintended consequences of war. War is tragic, and there is a human cost. There are people like the refugees, the innocents who are caught in the chaos, and that human cost is easy to comprehend. But there is another human cost, a gravity of knowing you are a participant in some ways, of enabling that suffering, and it is sobering. It shouldn't be spoken of so cavalierly, and dealing with that reality is hard to articulate. It leads to unspoken suffering amongst veterans, their families and loved ones. If ever there was a time for art to explore the gravity and emotional reality of this experience, now is that time.

This project is incredibly personal, not just to me, but for the guys like Sandy who were there, for all the people who raised their hand and signed a contract, for those who didn't make it back, and for the countless people who have been impacted by our actions around the world. This may be a war story, but more importantly, it is a human story, and it deserves to be told.

This one is a big undertaking, but if we find success with this, I think this story would merit a feature length treatment, telling the story of our protagonist's full deployment. That's projecting a bit into the future, but for this topic, it is worth it. Any help we can get in bringing this project to fruition would help with that goal, so thank you in advance, and we're all looking forward to bringing this project to life!