‘ABOVE AND BEYOND’: Legacy Through a Documentary

At 50 years old, Debora Masterson was divorced without a job.  

She had been a French professor, dancer, writer and talent agent. But when the agency she was working at dissolved, Masterson decided to try a new venture — making a movie. 

Around the same time, Masterson’s former boyfriend, Craig Ingraham, re-entered her life. 

The pair originally met when Masterson was 15, and they dated for seven years before “the craziness of the ‘60s and ‘70s” broke them up, she said. Upon rekindling their romance Masterson said Ingraham told her he wanted to make a documentary about his best friend, Bill Perkins Jr., who died in 1967.

Masterson put together the crew and Ingraham paid the way as the pair set off to make their first film, “ABOVE AND BEYOND.” 

“We were guerilla filmmakers,” Masterson said. “We did not know what we were doing.” 

In 2023, Masterson moved to Rogers Park, seeking a change of pace after Ingraham died in 2020.

“This is about giving back,” Masterson said. “Giving back to Craig the success that he was never able to see while he was alive makes me so happy.” 

Their documentary details Perkins’ three-month journey as a combat photographer in Vietnam. Recording. Shooting. Dying.  

“ABOVE AND BEYOND” was completed in 2008, but failed to garner traction until 17 years later. PBS picked the film up for distribution this year and released it Jan. 13. 

Prior to reconnecting with Ingraham, Masterson said he had already tracked down three months of Perkins’ footage from the National Archives in Washington, D.C. 

Once they began working together, their first goal was to interview the survivors from Operation Medina — a reconnaissance operation in the Hai Lang National Forest — during their reunion in D.C. 

For Masterson, the interviews illustrated Ingraham’s gift at filmmaking by drawing out emotion from the survivors. The pair set up a projector to screen the last 12 minutes of Operation Medina, shot by Perkins before he died during the battle.  

She said the veterans from Medina — who were in their late 60s and early 70s — had never seen the footage of their younger 19 and 20-year-old selves. 

“You got three adult veterans crying on camera,” Masterson said. “How did you do that? They have to trust you to be able to get to that point.” 

Despite Ingraham and Masterson’s efforts, “ABOVE AND BEYOND” never garnered more traction than the occasional Memorial Day screening. 

“I contacted every studio, production house, distributor, everything,” Masterson said. “But we never got distribution. And out of the blue, 17 years later, we get distribution. It’s really hard to believe.” 

Director of Photography John Matysiak said despite the film not circulating in 2008, the reactions it did receive made the process more meaningful than public acclaim. 

“I remember talking to Bill Perkins Sr. — his dad — after he watched the film he told me, ‘I know my son better now,’” Matysiak said.  

Before Perkins left for Vietnam, he got in a fight — over a girl — with Ingraham, Masterson said. She said never being able to apologize left Ingraham riddled with guilt.

“It’s [The documentary is] part of his redemption because of what happened before Bill left,” Masterson said.

On a fateful day in 1966, Ingraham’s friends told him they signed up for the Marines. He didn’t believe them.  

Once it sank in they were serious, Ingraham said in his documentary he knew at least one of them wouldn’t come back. 

James Priddy said he and Perkins enlisted not for glory or a desire to fight, but on impulse. Priddy said they were driving when they saw a Marine recruitment billboard. On a whim, they walked in and signed up for the “buddy program,” meaning they would remain together for basic training. 

Following boot camp, Perkins and Priddy were separated on different assignments for additional training. They briefly reunited at Okinawa before deployment to Vietnam — the last time Priddy would see Perkins.  

Priddy lost communication with Perkins during his tour in Vietnam. He later received a letter from his father he said changed his life.  

Perkins was dead. 

“I wanted payback,” Priddy said. “You get a lot of these feelings when you see or know someone killed there. All of these feelings well up instantly and usually the first feeling is, ‘I want to get those motherfuckers, the enemy.’” 

Perkins died sacrificing himself to save three of his comrades from a grenade, according to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.  

“The grenade came in, it kind of went up six, seven feet above us,” Vietnam veteran Dennis Antal said in the documentary. “It had such a high arch you could actually see it silhouetted.” 

Antal said he recalled someone calling out “grenade,” but there wasn’t any escape for the Marines. He said he crouched down, bringing his hands over his head.

“I looked up and Bill was in a crouching position and kind of on his knees, landed on the grenade.” 

In 1967 Perkins was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, becoming the only combat photographer to receive the honor, according to the Smithsonian Insider. 

When the news of Perkins’ death reached Ingraham, he drank himself sick with grief, according to the Bill Perkins Film website. 

It wasn’t until 25 years after Perkins’ death that Ingraham set his heart on making a documentary to honor his best friend. 

However, its success came two years too late for Ingraham, who died in March 2020. 

“Instead of planning a wedding, I was planning a funeral,” Masterson said as she spun a ring on her finger. 

Without Ingraham, Masterson said she’s left navigating an emotional minefield. She said while Ingraham’s goal was for as many people as possible to see the film, she’s often left wondering, “Why me?” 

Although many involved with the documentary are now dead, Masterson said she’s “proud to be a steward of the film” because sharing it can promote the need for worldwide peace. 

“Those who have been through that don’t want war,” Masterson said. “They are the peacemakers. These veterans who have come back don’t want war, and by telling their stories, we as civilians hear how terrible it is, and maybe it will help spread this idea that war is the last thing we should do.”

Masterson will host a free screening of “ABOVE AND BEYOND” April 11 at Chicago Filmmakers, located at 1326 W. Hollywood Ave.