Hey, folks! Wow, it's been almost a year since we started this journey, and it's been a wild ride. Our first interviewee was also our last — we started off by interviewing Shawn Banzhaf in June of 2024, and we finished up his last interview this past Saturday, April 26th, 2025.
The First Interview
Shawn shared his Act I with us in the hot June summer heat at the Pat Tillman Veterans Center, ASU Mountain America Stadium. By the time we made it to his Act III interview, the team was used to working in wild locales — mountains, deserts, beaches. Come rain or shine we turned out.
What's Next: Post-Production
Now that principal photography is over, we are putting our heads down and pushing forward through the post-production phase. That means over the next two months we'll be finding the best moments from our interviews with Shawn, Cheryl, Eric, Grant, Cris, Danny, Karen, and Melvin — all of the awesome Vets who shared their stories with us! Also, a big shoutout to Dr. Becky Blais from ASU, who shared with us the findings from her years of studies around active duty service members, Veterans, and Reservists.
The Heart of It
This journey has been amazing, and at the heart of it was a desire to share Veteran stories and prevent Veteran suicide. As we've traveled the last year, it's been really impactful to speak to members of the community and hear their stories of being personally impacted by Veteran suicide. It opened up my eyes and made me realize how important a topic this is and that we can't stop talking about it — doing whatever we can to prevent it.
Building strong communities for veterans is critical, and so we want to bring awareness to this issue and encourage Veterans to seek out other Veterans. It's easy to lose touch with the Veteran community, especially after transitioning out of the military, and even more so in a post-Covid world. So join us in fighting Veteran suicide, because we don't leave each other behind.
— Jack Blair
Director, This Is Not A Draft