A conversation in the waiting area of a South County Costco laid the foundation for what became Brothers in Blood: Black in Vietnam.
Filmmaker Joseph Puleo was waiting on repairs in September 2022. So was Vietnam veteran Edward Drew. They talked for more than an hour. Drew shared stories about serving in Vietnam as a Black soldier.
“He started basically pitching me on why my next film should be about the Black experience in Vietnam,” Puleo said.
Puleo took the suggestion home with him. He started with his research. He found books and television programs that touched on the subject. However there was no feature-length documentary centered exclusively on Black veterans and told from their perspective.
About a week and a half later, Drew called.
“Well, how’s that documentary coming along, Joseph?” Puleo recalled him asking.
That call helped set the project in motion.
Four years later the documentary will make its St. Louis premiere Nov. 14 as part of Cinema St. Louis’ 35th Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival. ‘Brothers In Blood’ examines the experiences of Black servicemen who fought during a period when they faced racism both overseas and at home.
“It’s the concept of fighting two wars,” Puleo said.
One war took place in Vietnam.
The other was waiting for them when they returned home.
The film includes firsthand accounts from veterans Edward Drew, James “Protein” Williams, McKinley “Mac” Hubbard, John Scates, Clayvon Wesley and Freddie Drayton. Brothers in Blood explores what it meant to serve a country that had only recently integrated its military while the Civil Rights Movement was still unfolding back home.
For Puleo, one of the most striking aspects of his research was realizing how recently that history unfolded.
“I think prior to that conversation with Mr. Drew, it’s nothing that ever really crossed my mind,” Puleo said.
As he interviewed veterans and historians, he became increasingly focused on what happened after the shooting stopped. Veterans spoke about racial discrimination within the military, Confederate flags in military barracks, unequal opportunities created by draft policies and the challenges they faced after returning home.
“They were trying to stay alive and make it back home,” Puleo said. “Then they come back to America.”
It was an America on the tail end of the Civil Rights Movement with rampant discrimination. The veterans were met with racism and systemically stifled opportunities. The film also explores the long-term consequences of the war in terms of mental and physical health.
Puleo said he learned during interviews that more than one veteran featured in the documentary had experienced homelessness after returning from Vietnam. Others struggled with post-traumatic stress, addiction and health complications linked to Agent Orange exposure.
One family’s story became especially meaningful to the project.
Gold Star widow Estella Shockley and her brother-in-law, Vietnam veteran John Shockley, share how the war’s effects rippled through their family for decades. Bobby Shockley was killed in action. John Shockley later suffered severe complications connected to Agent Orange.
“To really see this family and what the war had done to this family was a representation of what the war did to the Black community in general,” Puleo said.
The documentary also examines how Black veterans returned to communities that often lacked the resources needed to support them.
Historian Gerald Early, who appears in the film, discusses the disparities many veterans encountered after their service. Puleo said those conversations helped explain why some veterans faced greater challenges than their white counterparts after returning home.
One revelation that emerged repeatedly was how little many veterans discussed their experiences, even with family members.
At a screening in Cleveland, a woman approached Puleo after the film and told him her husband, a Vietnam veteran who died in 2023, rarely spoke about his service.
Watching the documentary helped her understand why.
“This film gave her the opportunity to understand the why behind why he didn’t talk about Vietnam,” Puleo said.
Those moments have reinforced the purpose behind the project.
From the beginning, Puleo said Drew wanted Black Vietnam veterans to have an opportunity to tell their own stories instead of having them filtered through someone else’s perspective.
“There was enough there to warrant a feature-length documentary solely about the Black veteran,” Puleo said.
The response from veterans has convinced him they were right.
One veteran approached the filmmakers after a festival screening and described it as the most accurate portrayal of the Black Vietnam veteran experience he had seen.
“It took 60 years to finally see themselves represented,” Puleo said.
Though the film includes scholars and historians, the veterans remain the focus.
Puleo said he deliberately looked for veterans living in the St. Louis area so he could continue working with them throughout production, gathering family photographs, military images and personal materials that helped tell their stories.
The result is a film grounded as much in memory as history.
For Puleo, the goal is not to change minds about the Vietnam War itself.
Rather, he hopes audiences leave with a deeper understanding of those who lived through it.
More than 50 years after returning home, the veterans who shared their stories in Brothers in Blood finally have another opportunity to be heard.
“I hope they [the audience] see things in a different light,” he said. “Hopefully it gives them a better understanding.”
Brothers in Blood: Black in Vietnam will screen at 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 14, at the Hi-Pointe Theatre as part of the 35th Annual St. Louis International Film Festival. A post-screening discussion will feature veterans profiled in the film, Gold Star family member Estella Shockley and director Joseph Puleo. The discussion will be moderated by Saint Louis University professor Dr. Christopher Tinson. For more information, visit www.cinemastlouis.org