In 2014, my father was courageously battling cancer. As his primary caregiver, I found myself meditating on legacy and what we leave behind. He had been an actor in his youth, before giving up that career to be present as a loving father to my brother and me. As I looked at my ailing hero, I realized the greatest gift I could give him was a return. A comeback.

Impulsively, I wrote a one-act play to submit to the Samuel French Short Play Festival in Manhattan. Set during the Civil War, ATTILA was based on the Home Letters of Major General William T. Sherman. It was a bristling two-hander between Sherman on the eve of his climactic March to the Sea and an escaped slave turned contraband soldier.

The piece demanded exceptional actors for a journey of intense emotional substance set in the past but very much about the pressing issues of our country today. A topical, incisive piece with great ambition.

We made it into the Sam French festival and premiered at Playwrights Horizons in NYC. My father and I drove into the city from Pennsylvania every week to rehearse with the other actor. Dad gave everything he had and slept on the car ride home. It exhausted him and kept him alive and vibrant all at once.

It was a transformative, emotional experience, two years before this election cycle came around. We talked about making a short film adaptation of the play at the time. A month ago, we pressed ahead.

We have secured incredible locations, including: Widener University (previously the Pennsylvania Military Academy), which will stand in for Michigan Military Academy, where Sherman gave his famous "war is hell" speech to graduating cadets in 1879, along with Valley Forge Military Academy, and two 19th century preserved historic homes on the Delaware River.

We filmed "b-roll" in Virginia a month ago, embedding our cameras at a reenactment with hundreds of infantry, cavalry, and artillery units. All that's left is to film the principle scene.