A month ago, the SEED center hosted a screening of No Greater Love, a documentary about U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. I thought about going, but didn’t.
Later, several of my friends who went told me it was an excellent film with a powerful message; so when I saw it was entered in the Lake Charles Film Festival held at the Central School, my curiosity got the best of me and I decided to go over and check it out.
The Lake Charles Film Festival isn’t Cannes, but it is growing into a fairly significant event. Four years ago, I went to the inaugural festival when it was just a handful of films; this year it had 75 entries.
No Greater Love won Best of the Show as well as Best Documentary. This wasn’t surprising. The film won Best Documentary at the Boston Film Festival, where it premiered earlier this year, and Best Military Film at the San Diego Film Festival.
Here’s what Entertainment Monthly had to say about it: “No Greater Love is a film that demands to be seen, and shows viewers the true fight that most everyday Americans are not aware of, and the brave men and women who fight for us … Seeing this film will open up eyes to the horrors of war, and will educate that those horrors don’t just go away afterwards. Most who have shown the greatest love have paid the ultimate price, and this documentary honors and dignifies that in a way that only cinema can.”
Dustin DeMoss, writing for the Huffington Post, said, “it is documentaries like these that give voice to the heroes of this generation by letting them tell the story as it is. No Greater Love is a story of survival, faith and redemption of the warrior as told by the warrior.”
The film has a local connection. It was produced and directed by Justin Roberts, who resides in Sulphur with his wife Megan, a native of Sulphur. Roberts graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary with master’s in Biblical studies and media arts and communication.
After graduation, he enlisted in the Army as a chaplain. In 2010, he was deployed with the 2/327th “No Slack” Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division to Kunar Province, the scene of some of the toughest fighting in the Afghan War.
Roberts felt he needed to be with the men he served as they went into combat. “For me to be with the wounded and dying, I was going to have to be on those missions, because guys were getting medevaced directly out; they weren’t coming to my chapel or medic station first.”
Chaplains don’t carry arms, so Roberts took his camera and filmed the men of “No Slack” on their combat missions. Over his year-long deployment, “No Slack” pushed deep into the rugged mountains of Kunar Province, fighting fierce battles with the Taliban. The unit lost 18 soldiers killed in action and earned more than 200 Purple Hearts. For his part, Roberts was awarded the Bronze Star and the Army Commendation Medal for Valor.
The title of the film comes from John 13:15: “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Over and over again, Roberts saw soldiers risk their lives, and in some cases give their lives, to save or protect their comrades. This combat footage forms the basis for the first half of the film.
When Roberts’ tour of duty was over, he returned to the United States and looked up some of the men he had served with in Afghanistan to see how they were adjusting to life after combat. The second half of the film is made up of his conversations with these soldiers.
“This film isn’t a contrived story about soldiers, it is soldiers; this is us talking,” Roberts says.
Roberts is especially concerned about PTSD and the high rate of suicide among soldiers and veterans. These combat vets may carry visible scars and wounds, but they also carry invisible scars and wounds that most people who haven’t experienced combat don’t understand. Roberts’ purpose in making the film is to help bridge this gap between the American public and its combat veterans. He has pledged all his proceeds from the film to veteran causes.
For those who would like to see the film, there will be a showing on Saturday, Nov. 7 at 5:30 at Crossroads Church in Moss Bluff (338 Hwy 171 N.), with a free dinner afterwards for veterans. For more information, email Barry Kelly at nglfilm@gmail.com.
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