HIGH GROUND: Standing Ovation At The Boulder International Film Festival

I've been traveling a lot the past two weeks. It always throws me off, and so it takes awhile before the brain is able to write. The past week, I attended the first screening HIGH GROUND, the documentary produced by Don Hahn (The Lion King) and directed by three time Emmy award winner Michael Brown. High Ground premiered on the big screen at the Boulder International Film Festival this past weekend. In attendance were 7 of the veterans who climbed Mt. Lobouche, a 20,000+ ft peak in Nepal.
Kate "Rizzo" Raggazino, Ashley Crandall, Chad Butrick, Justin Moore, Steve Baskis, Chad Jukes, Cody Miranda, and Nico Maroulis flew in from various parts of the country to attend. Lona Parten, Ike Isaacson, Dan Sidles and Matt Nyman couldn't attend, but were in our thoughts.

They come from all branches of the military, but all have a common bind: the experience of war. What's more is their families have gone through it too. So a film like High Ground is incredibly important because it hits a lot of notes: the loneliness of coming home and trying to make that transition, a Gold Star mother's recollection of a son who lived big, but was lost in a horrendous battle. The audience also witnesses teamwork amid a group of very different personalities, and lastly, to see both individual and group victories as they work their way to the top. The mountain is a metaphor for challenges seen and unseen. It's not just the mountain to conquer, it's a certain darkness that threatens to loom over those who have been through war and overtakes them unless they find their breath and take a step forward.

The audience laughed, cried and cheered during the film. But what I want to impart to you is what happened after the screening. Don and Michael took the stage, and then the veterans came on --to thunderous applause and a standing ovation.

Cody Miranda with one of his former Marine students

It was good to see this group of men and women who have gone through war receive such an outpouring of gratitude.

Something amazing happened. During the Q&A, a young man stood up. He looked at Cody Miranda and asked, "Were you at Coronado, because I think I remember your smile."  Cody replied, "Yeah, I was your Re-con teacher." The audience laughed, and then the young man quoted something that Cody had often told his men. It was a quote about life, and how to live. He told the audience that even though he was out, Cody was still teaching him because he thought of those words all the time.

Cody and others in the climbing group trained thousands of young men and women over the course of their military career. During the arduous weeks of training perhaps they wondered if their words would impart some greater lesson about life, and that maybe some of it would stick. In the case of this young man it did, and it was great to have it confirmed so many years later.