A New Mexico Story:
From the Bataan Death March to the Atomic Bomb 


Honors
2003 National Telly Awards- Bronze Telly
Official selection of the 2002 Santa Fe Film Festival
Entrant in Rocky Mountain Emmy Awards
PBS release: August 2003

The film reveals the state's link with the infamous Bataan Death March in the story of a New Mexico National Guard regiment sent to defend the American territory of the Philippines on the eve of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The regiment's rich ethnic mix made them one of the most diverse American units of the day in the United States Army.

The film tells much of its story in oral histories. "I think what makes the film work is the power of the interviews I was given by these men. They're survivors of what I feel is one the most under told stories of the Second World War. I really hope they are remembered," Wilson said.

The documentary made its television premiere in November, 2002 on PBS stations KNME TV in Albuquerque and KRWG TV in Las Cruces. The film was accepted and screened by the 2002 Santa Fe Film Festival. Sweeps ratings from the KNME showing of A New Mexico Story showed the locally produced documentary equalled viewer ship with top PBS programs such as NOVA and the American Experience.

The regiment's sad fate tells a less well known chapter of the Pacific War against Japan. It is a story of a courageous battle fought against a numerically overwhelming Japanese army. It is a testament of starvation and abandonment only to be followed by long years of brutality as prisoners of war at the hands of the Japanese military.

The long road of the regiment's survivors is a story of tragic proportions and human cruelty in the face of a religiously fanatical enemy, and yet, it is also a story that has moments of supreme human kindness, both of captor and captive. Moments that stand out as jewels of hope against the dark canvas of sadistic brutality suffered by so many.

A New Mexico Story: The Bataan Death March To The Atomic Bomb also finds itself on the home front with the development of the Atomic Bomb in the secret town of Los Alamos. The atomic bomb not only ended the war, it saved the lives of the state's captive native sons in Japan, who, with other American and allied POWs faced a death order from Emperor Hirohito in the waning days of the war. The bomb's use ended 15 years of Japanese territorial conquest in East Asia, which by August of 1945 had taken some 20 million lives directly or indirectly in China alone.

To order this film
Format: VHS
Running time: approx. 116 min.
Educational Price: 2-5 tapes @ $15.00 plus $5 shipping& handling
6-12 tapes @ $12.00 plus $10 shipping & handling
Send Check, POs, or Money Order To:

Aaron Wilson
McGaffey Films
6208 Academy Ridge Place N.E.,
Albuquerque , NM 87111

*Each additional 5 tapes, add $5 S&H

ABOUT THE FILMAKER
Writer, director and producer Aaron Wilson is a graduate of New Mexico State University (1983 BA in Journalism) and is a native of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Before working on A New Mexico Story, full time in July of 2001, he worked as a photojournalist for 18 years at three New Mexico newspapers: the Las Cruces Sun-News, Roswell Daily Record, and the Albuquerque Journal. He also worked for as a photographer for the Associated Press, Vista Magazine, the Albuquerque Journal, and Black Star.

He has received multiple awards for his photography from the New Mexico Associated Press Managing Editors and the New Mexico Press Association. Aaron's photographs have appeared in publications such as Time Magazine, Sports Illustrated and One Day U.S.A. books.

A New Mexico Story is his first long format documentary film. Aaron shares a long-standing family passion for history.

ABOUT THE CO-PRODUCER
Co-producer David Wilson is a graduate of New Mexico State University (1981 BA in Journalism) and lives and works in Las Cruces, New Mexico. He has worked for some of the Southwest's largest advertising agencies during his 20-year career as an account executive, creative director and producer.

Wilson has been the managing partner of Wilson Binkley Advertising & Marketing agency since 1994. He has helped produce national, regional, and area advertising for advertisers like Amigo Rentals, Borman AutoPlex, Metro Bath Scales, Larry Mahan Western Boots, and Sanders Western Boots. David's advertising agency won two national Telly awards for their work in broadcast advertising in 2000.