Honor Flight is a heartwarming documentary about four living World War II veterans and a Midwest community coming together to give them the trip of a lifetime. Volunteers race against the clock to fly thousands of WWII veterans to Washington, DC to see the memorial constructed for them in 2005, nearly 60 years after the War.
The film features Orville Lemke, a former plumber and beloved father of nine who fights to hold off terminal cancer so he can make the trip, and Julian Plaster, an 89-year-old poet who has survived almost all of his friends and family. Honor Flight also chronicles the stories of veterans Joe Demler and Harvey Kurz.
-Orville Lemke, surprised on the flight home with letters of gratitude. Photo Credit: Freethink Media-
They raise money for and promote the Honor Flight program to help fly as many of their fellow veterans as possible. Joe, a soft-spoken retired postmaster, was famously pictured in Life magazine as "the Human Skeleton" upon his liberation from a German POW camp. Days from death, he weighed just 70 lbs. His comedic sidekick, Harvey, saw the iconic flag go up at the Battle of Iwo Jima, unbeknownst to the shoppers he bags groceries for at the local Pick n' Save.
-Joe Demler, Life magazine's by Photo Credit: Freethink Media-
As the Honor Flight trip unfolds, Orville, Julian, Joe, Harvey and others share their stories and wisdom. While the Honor Flight program is meant to give something back to these humble heroes, the goodness they embody and their appreciation for life in freedom, transforms the lives of everyone they meet.
-World War II veteran Harvey Kurz (right) and a fellow Honor Flight participant are photographed in front of the Marine Corps War Memorial in Washington, DC. The memorial depicts U.S. Marines raising the flag atop Mount Suribachi on the island of Iwo Jima during World War II, an iconic image that was witnessed firsthand by Kurz during his tour of the Pacific. Photo Credit: Freethink Media-
On a Saturday morning in November of 2009, Dan Hayes took his camera down to the World War II Memorial upon the urging of his father. Hayes is a Milwaukee native and that day, the Stars and Stripes Honor Flight (SSHF) from southeast Wisconsin was bringing 200 World War II veterans to see the memorial built for them in Washington, DC. The first veteran Hayes interviewed said, "I can die a happy man, now that I've made this trip." Hayes tagged along with the group for the rest of the day and later called his freelance video partner Clay Broga to say, "This is the best stuff I've ever filmed."
A few days later on Veteran's Day, Hayes released a web video "Every Day Is a Bonus" chronicling his experience. The video got over 35,000 views and inadvertently helped SSHF raise hundreds of thousands of dollars. SSHF then asked Hayes if he'd be interested in making a 30-minute short film for television. He agreed and began filming, but once he completed an entire Honor Flight trip, he knew the story was so compelling that the project should be a feature-length film. Hayes quit his job to pursue the project, as did Broga, and together they created and self-financed Freethink Media under the guidance of entrepreneur Kmele Foster.
For over two years, Hayes, Broga and their ragtag crew shot and edited over 150 hours of high-definition documentary and interview footage to make HonorFlight. The filming was done entirely on the Canon 5d DSLR camera, a camera designed to take still photos but that has the capability to capture beautiful filmlike video at low cost. The Freethink crew filmed two dozen interviews and multiple Honor Flight trips from Milwaukee to Washington, DC and back.
The sense of urgency to complete the film grew as the veterans rapidly passed away, including a female veteran named Hazel who died just days before Freethink could film her and one of the film's main characters who died during production as well. The filmmakers rapidly grew Freethink to complete the film faster, ensure they did justice to the story, and build a for-client video production branch to help fund the film. Freethink now has 11 full-time staff and everyone is in their 20s or 30s.
Before Memorial Day in 2011, Freethink released a teaser trailer for Honor Flight. In a few weeks, the trailer had 4.5 million online views. The views were almost entirely generated through Facebook. Unprompted, viewers donated $25, $50 and $100 at a time, totaling $13,000 in unsolicited online donations from the power of the trailer alone.
Leading up to Memorial Day 2012, Freethink launched HonorFlightStories.com and released several short videos in anticipation of the film's premiere. The premiere was the most ambitious film premiere in movie history. SSHF rented out Miller Park, the Milwaukee Brewers stadium, which has one of the largest HD jumobtrons in professional sports. On August 11th, SSHF and Freethink broke the Guinness World Record for largest film screening in history with 28,442 people in attendance. The record-breaking crowd gave the film a standing ovation and their response encouraged the filmmakers to qualify the film for the Academy Award for Best Documentary.
Screenings are listed on the website at http://www.honorflightthemovie.com/see-the-film/ . A DVD is scheduled for release on Memorial Day, 2013. National Honor Flight Network would like you to know: Honor Flight Network, Inc. (honorflight.ORG), is the original Honor Flight organization. The flights and tours that Honor Flight Network provides World War II and terminally ill veterans are absolutely FREE. National Honor Flight Network:http://www.honorflight.org/