Soul Patrol

I found myself thoroughly engrossed in J.M. Harper’s SOUL PATROL, which threads together reenactments and firsthand testimony to revisit the Vietnam War’s first Black special operations team decades later. The narrative structure is evocative and highly engaging, bringing…

Matt Neglia

the archival footage here (especially the 8mm footage presumably shot by soldiers) is incredible and the interviews contextualize it nicely, the two together working well to establish a people and a time and place — but the reenactments squander that momentum and humanity,…

Justin LaLiberty

In J.M. Harper’s excessively rendered yet poignant Vietnam War documentary, the Black men of the F-51st gather one last time to share their collective past. They were the conflict’s first all-Black Long Range Reconnaissance team, earning the nickname Soul Patrol. That…

Robert Daniels

No, it’s still not the right time to celebrate people who committed war crimes in Vietnam. This is high-gloss US military propaganda. It presents some context about what led these soldiers to join the military, but doesn’t spend nearly enough critically examining their…

Vivek 🇵🇸

Best of fest so far, and unlikely to be surpassed. The archival stuff is great and avoids clichés. The interview stuff is excellent. And, I don’t think I’ve ever said this before, but the reënactments and other staged footage is absolutely beautiful and brilliant - equal to…

Lars Nilsen

It’s hard not to be moved by anything that ends with “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted.”

Bobby Finger

Sundance 2026: The Virtual Experience—Film #16 Betting Impression: The long-awaited documentary of the fifth winner of “American Idol”: Taylor Hicks. Winning it all can make you lose your soul. Post Watch: OK, that was a stretch. But seriously, since Black History Month…

G™

Probably the best doc of the festival that I’ve seen so far. I wish it got a little more nuanced with exploring the ethics of the war, but overall it’s very well made.

zack

I experience Sundance-winning director J.M. Harper’s work as an enthralling and singular alloy of the cerebral and the visceral. Last night at DOC NYC Selects at IFC Center, I was humbled to present the NYC premiere of his masterful second feature film tapestry, SOUL…

Jaie LAPLANTE