• In development
  • Feature
  • Family drama / Music drama

The Battles of Birdtown

When his disabled mother dies, a bitter musician returns to the Missouri town he abandoned, confronting his estranged father, old friendships, and the legacy of his younger brother killed in Iraq—only to discover that everyone he left behind has been fighting a private battle of their own.

Written by Christopher Shank

  • Semifinalist2025 Atlanta Film Festival Screenplay Competition
  • FinalistRichmond International Film Festival
Express interest

Development status

  1. DoneConcept
  2. DoneScreenplay
  3. DonePackaging
  4. CurrentFinancing
  5. NextPre-production
  6. AheadIn production

Synopsis

Some wars don’t end when the soldiers come home. Others don’t end when they don’t.

Craig Battle left his small Missouri hometown years ago, hoping to build a life as a musician and escape a family that had become inseparable from tragedy. His younger brother, Jared, was killed while serving in Iraq. His mother’s life was altered by a devastating accident. His father stayed behind, keeping the family together as best he could.

When his mother dies, Craig reluctantly returns to Birdtown, where everything he thought he’d escaped is waiting for him.

The town remembers his brother as a hero. His father remembers the son he lost. An old friend has even turned Jared’s death into a song. Everywhere Craig goes, he encounters someone else’s version of a tragedy he believes belongs to him.

And he resents them for it.

Craig has spent years convinced that nobody understands how badly his brother’s death affected him. But as old relationships reopen and long-buried resentments surface, he begins to recognize something he never considered: everyone he left behind has been suffering, too.

His father’s silence is not indifference. His friends have carried losses of their own. Even the community’s attempts to honor Jared are more complicated than Craig wants to admit.

Music, memory, dark humor, and the unsettling presence of his dead brother force Craig to confront a painful possibility: he has been so consumed by his own grief that he’s stopped recognizing anyone else’s.

Set against the bars, backroads, homes, and music of southeast Missouri, The Battles of Birdtown explores what happens to a military family long after the funeral, after the flags have been folded, and after the rest of the world assumes life has returned to normal.

It’s a story about brothers, fathers, friends, music, and the difficulty of finding your way back to people you’ve spent years pushing away.

Most importantly, it’s about recognizing that grief isn’t a competition—and that surviving a loss doesn’t mean you’ve finished living.

The story behind the film

In 2006, my younger brother, U.S. Army Corporal Jeremy Shank, was killed in Iraq.

I was not a soldier. I was the brother who stayed home.

In the years following his death, I saw how differently people experience the same loss. Families can sit in the same room, mourn the same person, and come away with entirely different understandings of what happened to them.

I also saw the strange distance that can develop between the public memory of a fallen service member and the private memory of the people who loved him.

The public remembers a soldier, a uniform, a sacrifice. A family remembers a brother who made stupid jokes, a son who got on their nerves, a person who existed long before anyone called him a hero.

Both memories have value. But they aren't always the same.

The Battles of Birdtown grew from those contradictions.

The film isn't a biography of my family, nor is it a conventional war movie. It's a fictional story informed by the experience of living in a military family after loss—and by the realization that the people who survive tragedy don't necessarily understand one another any better because of it.

It's also deeply connected to my upbringing in southeast Missouri. I want to bring this production back to the communities that helped shape me, using regional locations, talent, musicians, and production resources wherever practical.

This is a film about the people left behind, made in a place I still consider home.

Recognition and development

The Battles of Birdtown began as my MFA thesis screenplay and has continued evolving through years of rewriting and development.

The current screenplay is complete and is being developed toward an independently financed feature film.

I am assembling the professional producing, legal, budgeting, scheduling, and financing infrastructure necessary to move the project into production, with a particular focus on filming in Missouri.

U.S. Army Corporal Jeremy Shank, Christopher's younger brother. Photos courtesy of Christopher Shank.

Credits & attachments

  • Written by Christopher Shank

About the writer

Christopher Shank

Christopher Shank is an Atlanta-based screenwriter and writer-director who grew up in southeast Missouri.

His younger brother, U.S. Army Corporal Jeremy Shank, was killed in Iraq in 2006.

Although Christopher is not a military veteran, the experience of losing his brother—and his subsequent work as a Survivor Care Advocate with the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS)—has profoundly influenced his understanding of military families, grief, and the lasting consequences of service.

He holds an MFA in screenwriting and has developed a body of feature screenplays spanning family drama, military storytelling, comedy, horror, and science fiction.

His screenplays have received recognition from the Atlanta Film Festival, Richmond International Film Festival, Austin Film Festival, Nashville Film Festival, and other competitions and programs.

Across genres, his work frequently examines loss, family relationships, moral responsibility, and the stories people tell themselves to survive difficult experiences.

Contact Christopher Website Professional inquiries All projects by Christopher Shank

Help us bring The Battles of Birdtown to the screen

We are actively seeking investors, development financing, executive producers, and experienced production partners who want to help turn The Battles of Birdtown into a completed feature film.

The screenplay is ready. The next challenge is assembling the financial and professional resources to make the film.

Our immediate objective is approximately $20,000–$25,000 in development capital to support the professional production budget and shooting schedule, legal and business formation, rights documentation, and the financing materials needed to approach larger production partners.

The complete production budget is still being professionally developed. No production financing or formal producing attachments are being represented as secured.

We are especially interested in connecting with:

  • Film investors and financing partners interested in discussing development funding or eventual feature-film investment.
  • Executive producers and established independent-film producers with experience financing, packaging, and delivering narrative features.
  • Missouri businesses and production partners interested in supporting a feature rooted in the region and potentially creating local economic opportunities.
  • Veteran and military-family organizations interested in appropriate storytelling, community engagement, and outreach partnerships.

Our ambition is to make a professionally produced, emotionally honest American independent film that resonates with military families while reaching audiences far beyond them.

If you have the resources, professional experience, or relationships to help bring The Battles of Birdtown to life, I'd like to hear from you.

Explore the project

Interested in The Battles of Birdtown?

Producers, financiers, supporters, distributors and talent can contact Christopher Shank here. Your message goes to the creator, with a copy to The Veterans Channel. The full screenplay is shared on request under NDA.

This is an invitation to begin a conversation, not a public securities offering. Any potential investment arrangements would require appropriate legal structuring and documentation.

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