Students help with filming of Bob Baker-sponsored Korean War documentary

By Max Sutton-Smolin

(Center) RSF filmmaker Glenn Palmedo-Smith

It is considered one of America’s most forgotten conflicts. But local businessman Bob Baker clearly has not forgotten.
Baker, a survivor of the Korean War and president of Bob Baker Auto Group, commissioned the documentary film “Hold At All Costs” to honor veterans on both sides of a gruesome eight-day battle, which took place on a strategic hill called Outpost Harry that both sides were ordered to hold at all costs.
The film will air in June 2010, on time for the 60th anniversary of the Korean War and the 57th anniversary of Baker’s survivors’ group the same month.
“I’m probably one of the few survivors who can tell this particular story,” Baker said. “I’m doing this for all the people who didn’t come back or those who are still carrying the scars.”
The Bob Baker Family Foundation is funding the project, which will cost almost $1 million, Baker said.
Baker hired local filmmaker Glenn Palmedo-Smith to direct the film, which had its last day of filming on Dec. 18 at Stu Segall Studios.
“My motivation initially was just another gig, and now after a year and a half of working on this, it has become my life,” Palmedo-Smith said. “I’m so proud of these soldiers and of the work that my crew and staff have done. I believe this is going to be a very important film for the upcoming 60th anniversary of the Koran War commencement.”
What started off as a simple film idea of Baker’s soon turned into a huge national and international effort. All of the audio testimony is from actual combatants—more than 40 interviews with American, Chinese and Greek veterans who were actually at Outpost Harry and several done with historians, veterans’ advocates and politicians, Palmedo-Smith said.
Palmedo-Smith’s son Hunter, 23, took a year off from the University of Denver to work on this project. He is in charge of sound and lighting for interviews and reenactments as well as a lot of the set construction.
Hunter and Palmedo-Smith travelled to China, England and Greece together to get interviews.
“It was an opportunity of a lifetime for my son and I to bond and to get to know these veterans,” Palmedo-Smith said.
Hunter, assistant cameraman on the interviews and best boy on the grip team, has experience in film: He started his own film company in high school.
Hunter hopes to interview a couple more higher-up politicians for the film, including Hillary Clinton, whose office he has been in communication with, he said.
“It’s probably the most important thing I’ve ever done,” Hunter said. “I’m excited to be a part of it.”
The documentary includes interviews with two American nurses and a Chinese nurse as well as interviews with three U.S. generals, including John Eisenhower, the president’s son and the commander at Outpost Harry, Palmedo-Smith said.
Palmedo-Smith was able to collect evidence for the documentary of the type people never usually see, said Rod Melendez, executive director of the Veterans Museum and Memorial Center in Balboa Park. For example, it is extremely difficult to get interviews with “Red Chinese soldiers and nurses,” he said, Red Chinese being another name for the People’s Republic of China.
“That is really spectacular that he’s got people on both sides of the battle,” Melendez said.
Palmedo-Smith hired graduates around his son’s age from local high schools to play roles as Korean and American combatants in reenactments for the film. The students built the sets and had real roles to play, and used phrases like “most fun I’ve ever had” and “changed my life” to describe their experience working on the film, he said.
Several students have been working on the project for three months, Palmedo-Smith said.
“For me personally, and I can probably speak for Bob Baker too, I like to think of these dollars as getting young people excited about something, anything,” Palmedo-Smith said. “They’re in charge of their own destiny, and they’re not having anyone tell them too much what to do. I give them a task and they get to follow all the prompts themselves and it’s been a real reward for me, because I feel like I’m giving them more than just a little bit of money.”
Sean Flynn, 23, has been working for Palmedo-Smith for a week. He graduated from TPHS in 2005. His role is to help with acting and preparing the sets.
“I’ve never been involved with something like this,” Flynn said. “It’s a really cool experience seeing how it all comes together.”
Flynn went to Georgetown and got involved in the documentary by knowing the Smiths through TPHS basketball.
Any money the film makes will be donated to U.S. war veteran needs, Baker said.
“I think [Palmedo-Smith] may win some sort of award for the job he’s done,” Baker said. “He’s done a marvelous job … it’s a beautiful piece of artwork for a documentary.”
As an unexpected bonus for Baker and Palmedo-Smith, the Veterans Museum and Memorial Center intends to build a Korean War exhibit using props from and based in part on this film, Melendez said.
The exhibit will require significant construction and reconfiguration of part of the museum, Melendez said.
There were two reasons for building the exhibit, Melendez said, the first being that “our mission at the museum is to honor the many who have served in the armed forces,” and the second that “the Korean conflict is certainly one of the more forgotten conflicts.”
“There was a lot of trench warfare in this conflict, and a lot of people don’t know anything about it,” Baker said.
The United States was really not well-prepared for this war: Its soldiers were neither well-trained nor well-equipped, Melendez said.
Most of the equipment used in the war was left over from World War II, and was either in poor condition or not up-to-date, Baker said.
“Our battle [at Outpost Harry] was as big as any,” Baker said. “More artillery was fired in those eight days than in any other part of the war.”
Melendez hopes to be able to produce a travelling exhibit and send it to other museums around the country, he said.
“The film really tells both sides of the story, the horrors of war and such,” Melendez said. “It’s great to give the guys some recognition and make the public more aware of what this incident was.”
The interviews being all but complete, Palmedo-Smith is working heavily on the reenactments at this point, which allow younger audience members to identify with the old veterans in the interviews, making them more “accessible,” he said.
“The reenactments we are doing are strictly for ‘eye candy,’ to accentuate the testimonies of the actual combatants,” Palmedo-Smith said. “As the veteran talks about his experience, we somehow magically go back to what that vet may have looked like at 17 years old, and we’re seeing images that he’s describing. It’s a way to keep the audience entertained, but more importantly, to endear the audience to the character.”
The documentary’s preview looks like something from the History Channel and emphasizes the large impact and haze of misunderstanding surrounding the Korean War. Several interviewees tear up as they reflect on what the film calls “the decisive moment in the Korean War.”
“It seems like the war is overshadowed. It brings it to life when you’re actually reenacting it,” Flynn said. “It opens your eyes more to what it would be like being a soldier wearing all the gear, the suits, the hanging around with guns.”
A link to the movie trailer may be found at: http://www.eyeandheart.com/projects/haac/haac_11.24.09.mov.