A seasonal Haines resident is kicking off a Southeast Alaska tour of his new film “American Solitaire” at the Chilkat Center on Wednesday. 

The film centers around main character Slinger, a veteran who came home to the United States from his final tour “somewhat wounded and somewhat traumatized and his journey to heal,” according to director Aaron Davidman.

It grapples with themes of suicide and the impacts of escalating gun violence in America.

Davidman said he came up with the idea for the movie after reading his screenplay Ghost Town Bardo at the Chilkat Center during the summer of 2021. That screenplay, a one-man show about violence, guns and individualism, turned out to be something of an early version of the story at the heart of American Solitaire. 

“Gun violence is something that I really was drawn to,” Davidman said. “I was looking for a way to use art to broaden our public discourse.”

Davidson mentioned that nearly 47,000 people died from gun-related injuries in 2023, according to a Pew Research Center. Fifty-eight percent of the gun-related deaths in 2023 were suicides. Alaska has the third highest gun suicide rate in the country, according to the study.

In the film, another character tells Slinger that they “trained the violence in and the tenderness out during military training… to heal you have to reverse that.” The question at the center of this film, according to Davidman, is “How do we heal from those kinds of wounds?”

“I don’t think there’s been much movement around how our communities manage the issues of gun culture, gun violence, (that) gun safety statistics are holding,” he said.

But, despite the partisan battles over gun violence and regulation at the national level, Davidman said this is not a political movie. It is about a man trying to reintegrate into civilian life. After showing this film, Davidman said he hoped to have a “heartfelt conversation” and discuss issues brought up in the film, including masculinity.

“The film opens up another sort of subtle approach to ask a question around what is manhood and masculinity and also fatherhood, because someone is a father. What does that look like in a culture that’s so violent,” he said. 

He chose to center his film around a veteran because of “their deep experience, in relationship to firearms professionally.” To prepare for this film, Davidman said he interviewed legislators, cops, trauma surgeons and veterans all over the country. He found that veterans had the “most moral authority to really speak to these issues.”

Davidman recalled speaking to a former Army captain who served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. That officer trained men and women to be on the firing line and use their weapons.

“There’s a lot of room to create more safety with these firearms, a lot of room to create more healthy community conversation around how we can reduce death and injury by these lethal weapons,” said Davidman.

The film, Davidman’s first in the director’s seat, first premiered in November 2025 at the Coronado Island Film Festival in San Diego. It will be shown in Haines on March 18, in Skagway on March 20 and in Juneau on March 23. 

Locally, veteran Kyle Clayton will moderate a discussion after the 1 hour and 35 minute movie. 

Clayton is part of Haines’ large veteran population, estimated to be at about 171 people according to the United States Census Borough report for Haines in 2024.

Clayton said he has already seen the film. 

“There’s something there for everybody to consider, regardless of where you stand on certain issues. It’s an interesting movie and it makes you ask questions,” he said. 

Returning to the Chilkat Center, Davidman believes that this film is “best served on a big screen in a dark room with a group of people, experiencing it together.”

“The power of storytelling, whether it’s live theater or cinema, is at its best when we experience it in community,” he said.