PBS Independent Lens - The Kill Team (2015)
The Kill Team goes behind closed doors to tell the harrowing story of Specialist Adam Winfield, a 21-year-old infantryman in Afghanistan who — with the help of his father Chris — attempted to alert the military to heinous war crimes being committed by his platoon. Tragically, his father's pleas for help went unheeded. Once Adam’s fellow soldiers got wind of what he'd done, they threatened to silence him — permanently.
Forced to choose between his conscience and his own survival, Spc. Winfield found himself drawn into a moral abyss, faced with a split-second decision that would change his life forever. With extraordinary access to the key individuals involved in the case including Adam, his parents, his no-nonsense defense attorney, and his startlingly forthright compatriots, The Kill Team is an intimate look at the personal stories often lost inside larger coverage of what became the longest war in U.S. history.
The film weaves together two parallel storylines, past and present, chronicling Winfield’s unfolding legal story alongside the increasingly devastating recounting of the horrors that took place back in Afghanistan. Speaking with candor and articulateness, Adam and his fellow soldiers describe the weighty psychological quagmires in which they became stuck, each embodying the hazy morality of war, where the choices are often clear, but the best decisions seldom are.
Full Version Available Upon Request