An accident on a factory trawler put an end to Michael Tucker’s job as a commercial fisherman in Alaska. But that same misfortune led him to pick up a camera and begin his new career as a filmmaker. “For the past 15 years, I’ve traveled all over the world,” Tucker, co-director of Gunner Palace, explained in a telephone interview from Colorado Springs. “And, in my travels, I even met my wife,” he added.

Tucker’s spouse, Petra Epperlein, served as co-director of Gunner Palace, a powerful documentary about a group of U.S. soldiers (called “Gunners”) residing in the bombed out pleasure palace of Uday Hussein while serving in Iraq. Tucker, who spent two months filming these men, claims he has only one regret about the finished documentary. “If I hadn’t been married and had a child, I would have spent a lot longer time with the Gunners in Iraq,” he stated. “I would like to have been with them the whole time.”

As it is, Tucker did manage to get 100 hours of footage, and Epperlein helped with the editing upon Tucker’s return from Iraq. “Although my wife wasn’t with me while doing the filming, she experienced what the soldiers’ relatives were going through,” declared Tucker. “She had so much sympathy for them. She knew the families were going through hell and she influenced the kind of story we wanted to tell.”

Commenting on his most memorable experience during the filming of Gunner Palace, Tucker said the part he will never forget is “that I was filming people and that they started dying.” However, this made him realize how important the movie was because any family member could see “a tiny slice” of the life of their lost loved one. “All four of the men who died were the results of random killing; there was no warning -- and that really got to me,” he explained.

Tucker’s reactions to U.S. involvement in Iraq are emotional rather than political. “We have to get over these political feelings. I just hope we leave Iraq a better country than we found it,” he said. Regarding the recent elections in Iraq, Tucker believes the 60% voter turn out to be a positive step. “But it’s still an incredibly difficult situation,” he added.

After the special screening of Gunner Palace In Colorado Springs on January 31, Tucker will be visiting other cities --  including Chicago, Los Angeles and New York -- to promote this unique documentary. Stuart Wilf, a Colorado Springs resident, was one of the Gunners in attendance at the January 31st event. Photogenic and musically talented, Wilf is featured prominently in Gunner Palace.

Speaking about the Colorado Springs event, Tucker stated, “I was glad to see the soldiers that turned out at the screening as well as all kinds of people who were there and the energy from the audience.”

Tucker has every right to be proud of Gunner Palace. But, as always, his focus is on the Gunners. “I’m proud of these soldiers and happy to tell their stories,” he said. 

(For more information about the filming of Gunner Palace, to be released by Palm Pictures in March, go to the Baghdad Diaries website.)