Real Fake War – Observational / Archival Documentary
Runetime: 15:20
Topics – PTSD Therapy, Veteran Suicide, Finding Community
Logline: “Can a combat veteran find therapy and purpose through historical reenactments?”
Why did I work on this project?
This project is the result of many hours of effort by three dedicated film makers and my close friends. I met Gabriel and Tommy during my time in school and we quickly bonded over our love for story and began creating documentaries together. Tommy approached me with the idea for this film in late 2024 and not soon after I was cutting footage of World War 2 reenactments with no idea of where this was going. This project provided many opportunities for my strong editorial decisions to take center stage as I was tasked with intercutting archival combat footage with captured footage of T.J. at a reenactment of “The Battle of the Bulge”. This project has recently been picked up by The Savannah College of Art and Design for a festival run at top film festivals.
Challenges I faced and overcame while working on this project.
- Large amounts of archival and original footage to organize and edit.
- I had to reorder large story chunks around without disrupting the rest of the timeline.
- Was given multiple camera and video file formats.
- Had to keep film within 16 minute time limit.
Key Crew
Director: Tommy Dilger
Producer: William Eichler
Editor: Aidan Reed
Director of Photography: Gabriel Gorsuch
Supervising Story Producer: Sedika Mojadidi