Coldstream

It’s all part of director Rob Coldstream’s distinctive approach to retelling the story of the war.

“We watched 400 Vietnam documentaries, and some are amazing — the Ken Burns series is incredible — but we didn’t think we’d seen any that first and foremost really got you inside the human experience,” Coldstream says.

Coldstream says that instead of relying on clip reels, they scoured the archives of full films brought back from Vietnam by journalists and others.

“We didn’t want to go up to the level of the generals and the politicians — others have covered the politics and once you start … it could take us too far off our trajectory,” Coldstream says.

Coldstream says there’s something poignant and vulnerable about seeing these aging men and women reflecting on what they went through.