Silver screen salute Branson holds film festival for military docs

Published 7:57 am Wednesday, November 11, 2026

By Zach Holt

BRANSON, Mo. — As long as there has been the medium of the movies, war has been a popular subject of them. War films have won Best Picture at the Oscars a total of 16 times and some of the earliest films were tied to the subject. In 1898, short documentary film clips, called “actualities,” showed scenes from the Spanish-American War, including some recreations of Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders. This past Veteran’s Week, a Branson staple continued to honor those who served, through this medium.
The Branson IMAX Complex in Branson, Mo., held its annual Military Film Festival. The film festival is a yearly event held in the lead-up to Veteran’s Day, from Nov. 6-10. This year marked the 14th edition of the festival. The movies shown are documentaries pertaining to war and to veterans. For example, this year, the festival opened on Friday, Nov. 6, with a showing of the movie “Patriotic Education.” The interesting and moving documentary tells about a group of students from College of the Ozarks who participated in a program that paired them with a World War II veteran to learn from them and the trip they took with their veterans to places such as the Philippines and Germany to concentration camps where they served. Other films shown this year included Saturday’s feature, “ROHNA Classified,” which tells of the HMT Rohna sunk by Germans in WWII and kept classified for decades, Sunday’s showing, “A Promise to My Father,” about Holocaust survivor Israel “Izzy” Arbeiter and his journey back to Poland and Germany, and Monday’s movie, “Eagles of Mercy,” about two American medics who set up shop in a Normandy church and helped the wounded on both sides of the WWII conflict.
The film festival is the brainchild of Colonel James Whilhite. Hailing from Edmond, Okla., Whilhite is a retired colonel with the Army Reserve. He spent 10 years as a drill sergeant, with nine of those years teaching other drill sergeants. After the Vietnam War, there was a drawdown of soldiers and more officers were needed. He was then asked by General Leslie Lane, a member of the famed Merrill’s Marauders, to apply for a direct commission. Whilhite has 39 years under his belt, including roles as an Inspector General and Battalion Commander. Whilhite is also currently a Military Academy Liaison Officer (MALO) for the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, a role he has had as a volunteer for at least the past 25 years.
His final assignment was in Afghanistan. It was to build a four-year university for Afghan students modeled after West Point. He wrote a book about the experience, titled “We Answered the Call: Building the Crown Jewel of Afghanistan,” published in 2009. He met a friend on the book tour who wanted to buy the rights to the book to make a screenplay for the movie. Whilhite wouldnt sell the rights but agreed to work on the screenplay with him. They realized they “didn’t have the $30 million to make a movie, but [they] could probably come up with $30 thousand dollars to make a documentary.”
They attended a film festival in Washington, D.C. that gave him the onus to create Branson’s Military Film Festival, but not in a good way. Said Whilhite, he was charged $200 to attend the festival the first time, and then, a few years later, was charged $200 more to show his documentary. To Whilhite, he felt that was “criminal.” He thought that Branson needed a film festival that would not charge those who served. He had an affinity for Branson, calling it the “Mecca for Veterans.” The charge for non-military personnel is $6.
The first festival was in 2012. Only one film was shown, just to gauge interest in the idea. Held at the Elite Cinema III, people lined up out the door. The theatre held 180 people and people had to be turned away by the fire marshal. The emotion of the event led the owner of the IMAX theatre, Ann Bluto, to tell Whilhite, “You have my theatre.” It then became three documentaries and is now five.
The slate of films changes every year, and the selection of the documentaries is down to Whilhite, himself. Whilhite previews all the films before making a decision. The first film shown was the aforementioned “Patriotic Education.” 2026 was the first time the film had been shown at the festival since its inception, as Whilhite had been unable to find a copy of the film, until one showed up on eBay. Whilhite looks at over 300 documentaries a year to choose the five. One film that was described as “one of the most emotional” choices was a film about the Chosin Reservoir battle during the Korean War. Three members of the battle were in attendance for the screening. A lady came up to Whilhite after the showing telling him that he had made a big mistake showing the movie. Perplexed, he asked why, her response was that “you didn’t serve tissue.” After showing it again a few years later, according to Whilhite, he stood with a roll of paper towels for those who needed them. Another favorite was one called “The Girl Who Wore Freedom,” which told the story of a French girl whose mother made her an American dress for the victory parade after the liberation of Normandy in WWII. Whilhite got to meet the girl, now grown, who attended a screening of the documentary in Branson, and even brought the dress with her.
On Friday, Whilhite was not alone. Speakers at the showing included Dr. Sue Head, Vice president of College of the Ozarks, who spoke about the students and the program the students participate in that was the subject of the documentary. Also, President of the Branson IMAX Entertainment Complex Tanya Bluto spoke how holding this festival has been “an honor for 14 years.”
Also in attendance was Bob Server. Server will soon take over the duty of running the festival. At the screening, Whilhite announced that next year, 2027, will be his last year running the festivities.
For 14 years and counting, Col. James Whilhite and the Branson IMAX Entertainment Complex have showcased dozens of stories of those who have served. At the end of the screening, Whilhite encouraged those who had served that were in attendance to “tell your kids what you did.” Encouraging the audience to share their stories, mirroring the sentiment Ernest Hemingway shared when he said, “Every man has two deaths, when he is buried in the ground and the last time someone says his name.” For the past 14 years, Whilhite has used the power of the movies to help make sure these stories continue.