Private Project

Gossamer Wings Ep1: The Messenger

A war veteran struggling with his own loss and sense of purpose brings hope to the families of his fellow officers lost at war.

  • Tonia Kempler
    Director
  • Bulent Gurcan
    Director
  • Tonia Kempler
    Writer
  • Bulent Gurcan
    Writer
  • Tonia Kempler
    Producer
  • Bulent Gurcan
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Short, Web / New Media
  • Runtime:
    9 minutes 25 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    July 6, 2022
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Tonia Kempler, Bulent Gurcan

Bulent Gurcan immigrated into the US in 1997 when he was 21. Shortly after he joined the United States Army and served in two tours to Iraq. He received his undergraduate degree from UT El Paso in 2006 in Exercise Science and went on to receive a graduate degree in 2008 from Northwestern State in Health & Human Performance. Bulent became a Border Patrol Agent in 2006 and a Customs Officer in 2008. He served 11 years under Customs & Border Protection as a federal agent. In 2018, he joined the cast of Naked & Afraid and has 13 episodes with the Discovery Channel. In 2020, he wrote and shot his first award-winning action short and joined Tonia Kempler at Bellem Entertainment in 2020. In 2021, they formed Entangled Entertainment. Their projects range in format and genre, spanning everything from action to horror and Rom-Coms to thrillers, including shorts, features, episodic series, unscripted reality shows, web series, and podcasts. They have shot and completed several award-winning short films and an unscripted reality show. Their work is currently making the rounds in the festival circuit.

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Director Statement

Gossamer Wings began to take shape when Bulent Gurcan (ex-military/federal agent, now filmmaker/actor) received a request for a Cameo from a fan — a twenty-year veteran US Air Force 1st Sergeant who wanted to surprise his wife of twenty-five years.

Bulent approached the Cameo the way he approaches life and thought to himself, “be real, be honest, just be me.” He started the Cameo by thanking both of them with a message that went something like this: “We, in the Armed Forces, in deployment, in training, in war, go to bed every night praying and giving out thanks to God for surviving another day and asking for one more. When we go to sleep we know we are ok, we made it, and we look forward to the next day. You guys, the ones we leave behind, our wives, mothers, daughters, sons, brothers, fathers, and friends, go to sleep praying to God that we are ok, not knowing if we made it through the day, if we are missing a leg or an arm, or worse — if we are still alive. You are the ones we left behind, who live in darkness, whose hearts leap from your chests each and every time a doorbell rings, hoping it’s not that fateful message that will change your lives forever. You are the ones who are the real heroes. We, at least, know what is happening, you, however, wait in the dark, until the day comes to open that door, your hearts in your hands to see if it is good news or the last news you ever get from us. Thank you for all your support, love, and commitment to all of us in uniform. We do what we do so you can continue to be free.”

After this Cameo which wasn’t how Bulent envisioned it would go, got quite emotional at the thought of what the families of our military go through, night after night, second by second. He pondered how little the general public knew about their sacrifices, what they went through, how they live after they receive the last news. The idea of Gossamer Wings was born. He knew he had to spread the word of these heroes. This film is the journey of the last orders of a fallen soldier who knew what his daughter would live through.

Directors Statement:

As a war veteran myself, it was very difficult to shoot the film in a way that the viewers would feel everything our family members felt and raise some empathy towards the family members of the fallen protectors of this great nation.