Documentary film director Christopher Grimes will be at the Canton Film Festival at 9 p.m. Thursday where his film on friendly fire deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan will be shown at the Canton Palace Theatre.The movie, A Second Knock at the Door, is being shown in Canton because one of the service members featured is Army Spc. Jesse Buryj, 21, a Canton McKinley graduate killed in May 2004. Buryj’s death was less than two weeks after friendly fire killed former NFL star and Army Ranger Pat Tillman in Afghanistan.Grimes spent time in Canton talking to family members of Buryj, including his mother, Peggy Buryj.Buryj’s death by friendly fire was not revealed to the family for nine months. The government apologized more than two years after Buryj was killed.Q: How did you get involved in friendly fire deaths as an idea for a documentary?A: The documentary was based on my master’s thesis A Second Knock at the Door at Northwestern University for which I was awarded Public Policy and Administration Distinguished Thesis Award. I began this project with two simple questions: How many other Patrick Tillmans, who were not famous athletes, were killed in the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq? How many other soldiers had been killed by friendly fire, and how were their families notified of friendly fire by casualty reporting channels?Q: Other than Jesse Buryj, who were the other friendly fire deaths that you feature in this movie?A: Pfc. David Sharrett and the Sharrett family from Oakton, Va.; and Sgt. Lee Todacheene and the Todacheene family from Farmington, N.M.Q: What about the topic compelled you to go forward with this film?A: After I began the research process, I realized that the Army was less than forthcoming with my Freedom of Information requests. After months of waiting, I would receive either a flat-out “no” because of privacy laws or totally redacted documents. This led me to go around official Pentagon channels and focus on reaching out to the families. So within a few weeks of this decision, I was sitting in a living room in Canton, Ohio, with Peggy Buryj and a massive amount of documents covering her dining room table. It was in that moment that I realized this would be a very compelling documentary.Q: Can you talk about the death of Jesse Buryj and what you discovered from your interviews?A: Without getting into all the facts, at the end of the day Jesse’s case boils down to this: Army leadership in Iraq knew within 48 hours that Jesse was killed by either U.S. or Polish forces, thus friendly fire, and failed to inform the family of that change in status until almost a year had passed. Once the family had learned that he was killed by friendly fire and they began to ask questions, they learned that because of what appears to be a fear of international repercussion with Polish allies, the Army failed to collect the weapons that would definitively prove if the fatal shots came from either U.S. or Polish forces. Once pressure mounted because of Peggy’s unwillingness to sit quietly and accept the findings, a subsequent investigation was opened that discovered the fatal bullet was thrown away, thus ending the last hope for finding who was responsible for shooting Jesse.Q: Can you talk about Jesse Buryj and the picture that was painted of his family and friends of this soldier? A: One of the things that we wanted to be sure that we did in the documentary was not allow these honorable men who volunteered to serve their country be defined simply by the way in which they died. We wanted to be sure that we told their complete story, both inside and out of the uniform ... Peggy told me in the documentary that Canton helped raise him and Canton helped bury him. Jesse had this seemingly indescribable bond with Canton and his Midwest roots. [Peggy] has said from the beginning that she was not angry that her son was killed by friendly fire, but was angry that it took so long for the government to tell her family the truth of what happened.Q: I imagine putting this movie together involved hundreds of hours of interviews and travel. Was it worth it?A: Totally. It was a truly amazing experience getting to meet these families across the United States. They welcomed us into their homes and spent hours talking to us about some of the most painful experiences and days in their lives.Q: What is the message you hope to convey by your film?A: A couple of things, the first being that by and large the Army is a very honorable institution made up of genuinely honest men and women ... What the families are asking in this film is only that the Army live up to their own regulations. These families who made the ultimate sacrifice deserved better from the institution in which their loved ones served.Jim Carney can be reached at 330-996-3576 or at jcarney@thebeaconjournal.com.