\u201cKilling Memories\u201d begins like a movie script:<\/p>\n
A black screen with sounds of gunfire: Rifles. Machine guns. Running. Shouting. Chaos.<\/p>\n
The first images appear and a voice remembers: \u201cThat evening when I killed that first soldier I sat down to write my mom a letter and I just started bawling. I just couldn\u2019t tell her about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
In \u201cKilling Memories,\u201d director Pete Pepper\u2019s cathartic documentary film of redemption, the images, the sounds, the grief, and the nightmares are real even 42 years after the experience. Captain Pepper and four of his men who served under him in Vietnam are unable to purge their combat memories.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a film about choices, healing, regret and respect. Respect for fellow soldiers and compassion for enemies, face-to-face killing and those who called the shots.\u00a0 Captain Pete Pepper was one of those who called the shots: \u201cMy memories are of those who didn\u2019t make it\u2026my men, my orders, my memories.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe called them gooks.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cThey called us monkey men.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s easier to kill someone if you make them different from you.\u201d\u00a0 In a place so full of misery, they didn\u2019t fight \u201cfor some grand idea.\u201d\u00a0 They \u201cfought to stay alive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eventually the war was over; Captain Pepper and his company went home, but the memories lasted, spilled over and exploded into Pepper\u2019s personal life.\u00a0 Dealing with his own anger, unable to help his wife with hers, he lost her when she took her own life.\u00a0 On the brink of following in her footsteps, some of his men found him and in 2009, they returned to Vietnam, met their former enemies and began to make peace with the past.<\/p>\n
Hanoi. Saigon.\u00a0 Cu Chi.\u00a0\u00a0 In a country returned to normal, how to make amends? How to regain respect?<\/p>\n
At a revisit to the dark tunnels of Cu Chi, Benito Garcia remembered: \u201cMen yelling for their mothers\u2026just yelling in pain, and you couldn\u2019t do a fucking thing to help them.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cThe war\u2019s not over.\u00a0 It\u2019ll never be over.\u201d<\/p>\n
Why are we here again? How do we lighten the load?<\/p>\n
Five Americans and two Vietnamese soldiers came together, met at a memorial and returned to the battlefield.\u00a0 New experiences were made, hands were shook and confiscated items returned in peace: a bracelet, a buckle and best wishes to families from both sides.\u00a0 Then, a Vietnamese salutation of grace: \u201cWhat happens in the past, stays in the past.\u00a0 I wish you all good health and a blessed life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nothing is sugar-coated, the story is told in an intensely human way: no judgments, just honesty.\u00a0 Just life.\u00a0 Pete Pepper\u2019s rhythmic voiceover seemed to bathe his men in comfort: \u201cwe didn\u2019t apologize for what we did and they didn\u2019t either. They didn\u2019t say we won. We never said we lost.”<\/p>\n
\u201cKilling Memories\u201d is a documentary, but plays like a narrative feature. It’s a shame there’s no Oscar for documentary editing.\u00a0 Applause is due.<\/p>\n
KILLING MEMORIES screens at the Santa Fe Film Festival, 2011 on Friday, October 21, 2011 at 6:15P at the CCA. For tickets, call the 505-988-1234, or purchase online at ticketssantafe.com.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cKilling Memories\u201d begins like a movie script: A black screen with sounds of gunfire: Rifles. Machine guns. Running. Shouting. Chaos. The first images appear and a voice remembers: \u201cThat evening […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"festival_year":[3],"class_list":["post-2486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","festival_year-3"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":6}},"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2486"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28984,"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2486\/revisions\/28984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2486"},{"taxonomy":"festival_year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/festival_year?post=2486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}