It seems that out of every festival comes “the best movie of the year.” Coming out of SXSW, one of the films that seemed to get a lot of buzz was the documentary Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father. Kurt Kuenne’s documentary started off as a filmmaker trying to memorialize his murdered friend David Bagby, so that Bagby’s son would have an account of the man he never met. Sounds harmless enough but when you add in that Bagby was murdered by his lover who then took off for Canada after committing the crime and then had Bagby’s child, things get a little more interesting. What impresses me most about this documentary is that what people talk about is not the tragic story but the emotional drain of watching the documentary.

The trailer, which has now made its way onto the web in preparation for the film’s release in NY on October 31st and then LA on November 7th, says very little about the film but it does outline the basics of the story and hint at some big reveal. For the most part, had I seen this trailer under any other circumstances, I’d likely have passed right over it but considering the amount of praise for the film, I’m willing to give it a chance. Under the circumstances I doubt the film will see any sort of large distribution but one can always hope that it will open a little wider as the months progress and if not, a DVD will certainly hit the shelves at some point in 2009.

Until then, be sure to check out the trailer and a few of the reviews which have popped up on-line over the last few months.

Trailer, care of FSR, is tucked under the seat!