My goal with this column is to help spur interest in a movie that opened last week, a movie that deals with, among many things, a somewhat unknown problem: The anguish and grief felt by many American veterans after they return home from war.

The following synopsis of the film is taken from Rotten Tomatoes: “‘My Dead Friend Zoe’ is a dark comedy drama that follows the journey of Merit (Sonequa Martin-Green), a U.S. Army Afghanistan veteran who is at odds with her family thanks to the presence of Zoe (Natalie Morales), her dead best friend from the Army. Despite the persistence of her VA group counselor (Morgan Freeman), the tough love of her mother (Gloria Reuben) and the levity of an unexpected love interest, Merit’s cozy-dysfunctional friendship with Zoe keeps the duo insulated from the world. That is until Merit’s estranged grandfather (Ed Harris)—holed up at the family’s ancestral lake house—begins to lose his way and needs the one thing he refuses… help. At its core, this is a buddy film about a complicated friendship, a divided family and the complex ways in which we process grief.”

Full disclosure: I am an investor who helped bring this movie to the big screen. I have no expectations of making money from the film, as indie productions of this kind rarely turn a profit. I’m just happy to know that I was part of something special, something that helps bring attention to the struggles of veterans. And admittedly, it’s also pretty cool that my name is supposedly shown in the credits, though I haven’t yet actually seen that for myself. (I plan to see the movie this week in Manhattan with my girlfriend.)

I shared information about the movie in two Pelham Facebook groups on Wednesday night, and you can imagine my surprise the next morning when I was told that at about the same time I was sharing the posts, the movie was actually screening (before it’s full release) at the Pelham Picture House, as part of their movie club. I had no idea it would be showing there and was very disappointed that I had missed it, but I was ecstatic to hear that two coworkers had seen it and said that everyone loved it and found it very moving.

My journey with this movie started back in 2017 when I took a flyer on some common stock in Legion M Entertainment, Inc., the world’s first fan-owned entertainment company set up to produce movies, TV shows and other content. It was founded in 2016 by Paul Scanlan and Jeff Annison. (I can almost say I got in on the ground floor.)

In 2022, I received an email from Legion M explaining the company’s interest in backing a movie based on the short impact film, “Merit x Zoe,” directed and written by Kyle Hausmann-Stokes. The short focuses on the complex friendship between two soldiers named Merit and Zoe, set against the backdrop of the military experience, often dealing with the emotional challenges of war. It is considered a well-crafted “PSA short” that avoids many military movie clichés and emphasizes the personal connection between the characters. The 16-minute short can be viewed here.

Legion M was looking for investors to help bring this project to fruition, but when I saw the minimum dollar figure required, I thought, no way am I putting that kind of money behind something that has little to no chance of returning a profit. My mind was quickly changed, however, when I watched the short and found myself crying. Not only was I heartbroken by the “The Sixth Sense”-level, surprise ending, but I was quite literally shocked when the end credits displayed very disturbing statistics about veterans that “survived a war, but lost a battle with suicide.” I sat in disbelief in front of a black screen with white writing that stated: “Since 2001, more than 114,000 American veterans have died by suicide. Sixteen times more than killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

I like to think that I have a clue about a variety of things, but I had no idea about the severity of veteran suicide. I proceeded to share the film with friends and family, and every single time the reaction was the same: tremendous surprise and sadness. Ironically, the friend who was shocked most of all is himself a veteran of the Vietnam War. When that black screen and white writing came on the screen he shouted painfully, “114,000 suicides!?”

Almost apologetically, he said, “I knew there was a problem, but I had no idea!”

I said to myself, I don’t care if I lose money; I want to be part of bringing this movie to the big screen; I want to help bring awareness to this problem. Shortly after I invested, I received a follow-up email. Amazingly, and quite out of left field, I was informed that Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris had just agreed to co-star in the movie. Both were very sympathetic to the project, and like myself, they wanted to be involved. I couldn’t have been happier.

And now, two years later, here we are… “My Dead Friend Zoe” is a reality. I hope you’ll grab some friends and family, as I did with that short film, and go see the movie. Tickets can be found here.