The Umpteenth Iraq War Tragedy

Although the number of documentaries made about the lingering George W. Bush morass known as Iraq has grown to voluminous proportions, the futility of the conflict still hits home, especially when the focus is on fatalities that have taken place on the relative safety of U.S. soil. Premiering Sunday, May 23rd at Pennsylvania's historic Newtown Theatre, the 50-minute work-in-progress Tristan's Story is Justin Lancaster's heartfelt ode to his late 23-year-old younger brother, who came home from the Middle East in 2008 with a serious case of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).


As detailed in the film, Tristan wound up falling through the cracks, receiving no callback from the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) after an initial plea for help and later being told by an Army official that his symptoms were nothing more than dehydration. Eventually, in May 2009, a disconsolate Tristan took his own life by jumping off the roof of a University of Pennsylvania building. Older brother Justin also freely admits that he and his family were largely in the dark about the severity of PTSD, something he has since learned a great deal about and hopes his film can draw renewed attention to.

[Tristan's Story]