ST. LOUIS - A Webster University master student has been nominated for a Academy Award. Sort of.
Michael Thomas Sandknop recently graduated in May from Webster University's master program. He has most recently worked on a short documentary film 'Mama Bear Down' which is an expose about suicides among women veterans.
The 16-minute film, which you can watch here, was so good that it has been nominated as a semi-finalist for a student Academy Award, which is awarded by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the same group that gives out the Oscars.
Sandknop joined Total Information A.M. to discuss the film and detailed the process behind the film.
Sandknop said he first got the idea for the film from working on his final thesis and his research, which found that women veteran suicide rates are tripled the national average, compared to men who are doubled the national average.
"I'm a news junkie, I wake up every morning and read the news," said Sandknop, "Trying to find apples to apples numbers was the really the aggrevating part of this."
Sandknop says the title of the film 'Mama Bear Down' came from two military phrases of 'Mama Bear' which is a nickname given to women warriors who fight like hell during combat and 'down' is a term for injured or killed.
Sandknop told Total Information A.M. that the biggest challenges was finding the human characters that willing to share their story and the struggles that them or their family member have gone through.
"There were a lot of people that didn't want to talk about the loss of a family member who died," said Sandknop.
Sandknop was eventually able to find Lance Corporal Savannah Cannon, who was able to detail her suicide attempts and gave Sandknop background on what was going through her head before she eventually got her life back together and is now remarried with a son.