If you look at Production Update #11 on the project website (linked here), you’ll see some predictions I made about when the film would be finished—and, as it turns out, I was wrong.
At the time, I projected that filming would be completed in 2024 and that the film itself would be finished by the end of 2025 or early 2026. Now, as I write this update for the end of 2025, I’m about a full year behind that prediction.
This is the penultimate production update. The next one will describe the final interview we conducted for the documentary. Production effectively wrapped at the end of 2025—though we did squeeze in one last interview right at the start of 2026—and the film is now in post-production.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s go back to December and talk about our filming in Philadelphia. As with the earlier trip described in Update #11, we interviewed Dr. Nancy Isserman and Dr. Bea Hollander-Goldfein, experts in generational trauma.
Nancy and Bea are the co-directors of the Transcending Trauma Project, a research initiative that examined the transmission of trauma across three generations of Holocaust survivor families, similar to the focus in the USS Franklin documentary. What they learned from that work has broader relevance for other groups, including veterans and their families, which makes them well-suited to serve as experts in the film.
At the Council for Relationships, they are involved in Operation Home and Healing. The program provides counseling and mental health services for active-duty service members, veterans, and their families. It also trains therapists and clergy who wish to work with military personnel, veterans, and their families. You can learn more about it at this link.
I had two main goals for this interview: first, to review the interviews we had conducted since our last visit with Bea and Nancy and discuss any new revelations—particularly those that emerged from the interviews conducted in Japan—and second, to examine a document we had found that sheds new light on the controversies surrounding USS Franklin commanding officer Leslie Gehres.
For readers who may not be familiar with these controversies, I recommend the well-written books Lucky Lady: The World War II Heroics of the USS Santa Fe and Franklin by Steve Jackson and Inferno: The Epic Life and Death Struggle of the USS Franklin in World War II by Joe Springer. Readers may also wish to watch director Robert Child’s documentary, USS Franklin: Honor Restored. These three works have provided invaluable background and knowledge that helped shape my research and approach for this documentary.
In addition, the two-part paper I wrote that was published in Naval History magazine also addressed the subject and brought forward newly discovered documents that helped fill gaps in the story. (Described in Update #24 here.)
However, the document I provided to Bea and Nancy was not described in my Naval History paper and, to the best of my knowledge, has never been published. It will be revealed for the first time in the documentary.
This shoot was relatively quick. Tim and I flew in the day before and picked up the rented equipment. Eric joined us at the location the next morning, we filmed the interview, and then Tim and I returned the equipment before heading to the airport for our return flights.
In the next update, I’ll tell you about the final interview of the documentary’s production phase.