DAYLIGHT FOLLOWS

A Story of Survival and Friendship – A Short Documentary That Deserves the Big Screen

This morning, we had the privilege of watching one of our submissions—a short documentary directed by Geoff Brooks, with breathtaking cinematography by Paul Mortlock. Words can hardly capture the depth of emotion this 20-minute film evoked.

The documentary tells the remarkable true story of a teenage American soldier who survives D-Day and a young Czechoslovakian boy who endures the horrors of Auschwitz before being forced on a death march west. Their paths cross when the soldier helps liberate Buchenwald, where the boy is fighting for his life. From that moment, they form a friendship that lasts a lifetime.

Every second of this film is worthy of praise. The strength of the men recounting their harrowing experiences is deeply moving, and the filmmaking team has captured their stories with a cinematic beauty that elevates the documentary beyond expectation. We were not prepared to be hit with such intense emotion at 7:30 on a Thursday morning, yet somehow, amidst the heartbreak, this film left us with hope—hope in humanity, in resilience, and in the extraordinary bond between these two men.

We are no strangers to Paul Mortlock’s incredible cinematography, but this may be some of his finest work yet. Every frame is meticulously crafted, capturing both the weight of history and the raw emotion of survival with stunning visual storytelling.

This short documentary is nothing short of extraordinary, and it more than deserves its place on the big screen. We can only hope to see an expanded version one day—this is a story that demands to be told as a feature-length narrative film.