Black Maria Film Series, “Return to Dak To”

The Museum is hosting a spring series of screenings of Black Maria Film Festival award-winning documentary films on the first Wednesday of the month, April – June, presented by Festival director Jane Steuerwald, often with filmmakers as special guests.

The fourth program, on Wednesday, June 6, will feature a 50-minute documentary, “Return to Dak To,” by director and former combat medic Christopher Upham, who journeys to vibrant contemporary Vietnam with four veteran comrades. The film reveals how their Army unit, the 299th Engineers, were left at Dak To firebase in 1969 as bait for a North Vietnamese Army force. The veterans confront their feelings of abandonment by leaders and society alike as they talk about their sacrifices, shortcomings and pride of service, amidst shifting bouts of PTSD. Returning to Dak To provides an unexpected closure for these men as they give voice to personal traumas that connect to the universal sufferings of war. After the screening, Upham will join Festival director Jane Steuerwald for a Q&A.

Upham is a producing writer-director living in San Francisco. “Return to Dak To,” his first documentary, premiered at the Black Maria Film and Video Festival, where it won a Jury’s Citation, 2nd Prize. Upham’s collaborators include: playwright John O’Keefe, directors Paul Saltzman, Taggart Siegel, Ellen Perry, William Farley, Yun Suh, Hisham Bizri, Lynn Hershman-Leeson, and arms trafficking investigator/producer Kathi Austin. Upham is on staff at the Squaw Valley Community of Writers Screenwriting program, and he has taught at San Francisco State University and the San Francisco Film Society.

Upham has also published a novel, Daktoum, a fictional retelling of the events in “Return to Dak To,” published by Skywriter Books, Spring 2015. His short fiction, “Nothing To Crow About,” was anthologized in Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace, edited by Maxine Hong Kingston. Upham has acted professionally in over 50 films, including a featured lead in Larry Clark’s “Cutting Horse.” He began in the film business with legendary IMAX pioneer, Director Greg MacGillivray and has worked professionally at nearly every movie job above and below the line, except for grip and gaffer. Mr. Upham’s current projects include: Sidewinder Justice, a dystopian war veteran’s revenge novel set in a desert city and Dark Gate, a San Francisco neo-noir transmedia film/novel.

Doors open at 6:30, the films screen at 7 pm, followed by Q&A. Light refreshments will be served. Tickets are $5 at the door. Seating is limited, reservations are advised.

Click here to reserve a seat.

The Black Maria Film Festival’s Hudson County Movie Tour is made possible through the generous support of The Hudson County Executive Thomas De Gise and the Board of Chosen Freeholders – the Hudson County Office of Cultural & Heritage Affairs & Tourism.

Since 1981, the Black Maria Film Festival has been celebrating and preserving the diversity, invention, and vitality of the short film. The Festival’s home is New Jersey City University in Jersey City, NJ and is named after Thomas Edison’s original West Orange film studio dubbed the “Black Maria” because of its resemblance to the black-box police paddy wagons of the same name.

Black Maria is an international juried film competition, focusing on short films including those that shine a light on issues and struggles within contemporary society. Its touring programs always include provocative works by diverse filmmakers from across the US and around the world. These artists often represent an under-served constituency who might not otherwise have the opportunity for live public exhibition nationwide or abroad.