USA,
1998, 72 min
Shown in 1999
CREDITS
- dir
-
Barbara Sonneborn
- prod
-
Barbara Sonneborn, Janet Cole
- scr
-
Barbara Sonneborn
- cam
-
Emiko Omori, Nancy Schiesari, Daniel Reeves
- editor
-
Lucy Massie Phenix, Ken Schneider
- source
-
Sun Fountain Productions, 2600 Tenth Street, Suite 258, Berkeley, CA 94710. FAX: 510-548-7302
- gga award
-
Golden Spire, Bay Area Documentary
-
COMMENTS
Shown with Opening Nights. Barbara Sonneborn, Xuan Ngoc Evans (subject of the film) and Emiko Omori in person.
OTHER
Regret to Inform is one of those all-too-rare finds: a war documentary about women. It’s the debut effort from Barbara Sonneborn, an accomplished Berkeley photographer and visual artist whose first husband was killed in the Vietnam War. Nominated for an Academy Award and winner for best direction at Sundance, the film is a call to lay down arms and acknowledge the horror of war. It is also a tribute to the women who are left behind to pick up the pieces and deal with the aftermath. Through archival footage and on-camera interviews with American and Vietnamese widows (over the years, an impressive roster of stellar Bay Area talent worked on the project), Regret to Inform evokes the human effects of waging war in carefully observed, poignant moments. It’s the strength of the material that draws us in and compels us to watch; it’s impossible not to come away with an overwhelming sense of waste. Each death creates a ripple effect that wounds relatives and friends in countless ways for years to come. “War is a monster.” Says Sonneborn, “You let it out of its cage, and you can’t tell it how to behave.”
—Sura Wood
FACTOID #92
In 1997, the 40 th anniversary of the Festival, four films shared the spotlight for opening night: Bliss, Love Valour! Compassion, Wake Up Love and When the Cat’s Away.
