Not Yet Begun to Fight

Not Yet Begun to Fight, an unconventional look at the impact of war and the journey to recovery, is currently running as a special on pbs.org.  Not Yet Begun to Fight has received high critical praise, including 3.5/4 stars and “Two Thumbs Up” from the Chicago Sun-Times, and also was selected by Roger Ebert to be one of twelve feature films shown at his annual film festival, Ebertfest, shortly before his untimely death in April of 2013.  Visit www.pbs.org to view the documentary.

The film sold out numerous screenings across the country and won a variety of festival awards, among them the Moving Mountains Prize at Telluride Mountainfilm, the Audience Award for Best Documentary at both the San Diego Film Festival and Florida Film Festival, as well as the Big Sky Award at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival.   

The film focuses on five warriors who join retired Marine Colonel Eric Hastings for a week of fly-fishing in Montana.   Hastings, who flew missions “high above the death and destruction” in Vietnam, returned home to Montana in 1969 battling dark dreams.   His solace was fishing: “When I came back from combat, I found I needed relief.   And the more I went fly-fishing, the more I knew I needed more of it.   It became an absolute desperate physical and mental need.   And I had to do it, or I was going to kill someone.”  

Directors Sabrina Lee and Shasta Grenier shadow Colonel Hastings as he reaches out to a new generation of traumatized combat veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan.   He leads five remarkable, intense, and vulnerable young men (three marines, a soldier and a Navy SEAL) to the quiet waters of Montana.   His mission is to help them find their way through the space between the war they have just left behind and the new battles they face.   According to Elliott Miller, a Navy SEAL who lost the ability to speak and now communicates with the automated voice of an iPad, “The hardest thing, and this probably goes for just about any wounded warrior out there, is having to learn every little thing all over again.   Only this time, where you were once an able, barrel-chested freedom fighter and proud, now you are broken and weak and humble.   And so it just adds a whole new level of difficulty to it.”

Hastings knows too well that the war is never over for those who fight.   On the rivers of Montana, with a fly rod in hand, he shares the balm that soothed his wounds, “Fly-fishing is a series of opportunities for hope,” he says.  “This river healed me.”

To learn more about the film, its filmmakers and to watch a short trailer, visit the website at www.notyetbeguntofightfilm.com. 

Film Credits

Producer/Director Sabrina Lee, who grew up in Ocala, Florida, turned her artistic eye toward documentary filmmaking in 2005 when she saw a sign in a cow pasture reading “Hip-Hop Show Tonight”. She was inspired to make Where You From, the award-winning feature-length documentary about rural rap which premiered at the Florida Film Festival in 2009 and had a successful festival run. The film was acquired by Indie Pix films in 2009.

Director/Editor Shasta Grenier has a knack for finding stories in mounds of footage. By gratefully and respectfully appropriating stories and regularly losing sleep, Shasta has earned numerous Emmys, CINE Golden Eagle, Telly, and film festival awards. She has a MA in English from the University of British Columbia.

Director of Photography Justin Lubke grew up in a tiny Montana town, made his first film with an indigenous tribe in South India and returned home to graduate from Montana State University with an honors degree in filmmaking. He has worked on non-fiction and fiction films and has directed, shot and edited a variety of programs in topics ranging from grizzly bears to basketball to various commercial spots. His work has appeared on major networks throughout the world. He directed, shot and edited Class C, a feature-length documentary that won multiple film festival awards and two Emmy Awards. 

Line Producer Wyatt Nelson has worked in the film, television and commercial industry in New York, Los Angeles and Montana in a variety of roles and has been a crew member on films as Woody Allen’s Celebrity, First Daughter, and the television series Will & Grace. He graduated with honors from Montana State University with a BA in film and lives in Montana with his wife and three children.

Original Score/Production Guidance Matthew Buzzell is an award-winning documentary filmmaker who holds a BFA in Drama from The University of the North Carolina School of Arts and an MFA in Directing from the American Film institute. Artists with whom Matthew has collaborated include Sacha Baron Cohen, Diane Krall, Elvis Costello, Patti LaBelle, Lana and jimmy Scott. Matthew’s most recent project, Excavating the 2000 Year old Man, celebrates the collaborative work of Mel Brooks and Carol Reiner and is slated for release in 2012. 

Executive Producer Steve Platcow is the former Chief Executive Officer and Founding Partner of RPM Advertising, inc., a full-service marketing agency headquartered in Chicago, established in 1994. 

Executive Producer Harvey C. Gannon is the Chief Executive officer of Campus Guard, an international provider of PCI DSS compliance services for higher education institutions.

Executive Producer M.J. Hartwig practices law in Montana.