When Ed Nachtrieb climbed from the raft on the Smith River last May and turned his camera on a soldier with a prosthetic arm, he couldn't know that his film would gain much interest in the world beyond the deep Montana canyon and the state's fly-fishing circles.

Natchtrieb, a filmmaker in Los Angeles, floated the Smith last spring with Helena river guide Mike Geary and eight wounded combat veterans who were hand-picked for the float by the Wounded Warriors Disabled Sports Project.

"We finished the film in the fall of last year and started showing it around to find a home for it," Natchtrieb said. "It touched some chords with certain veteran groups, including the National Veterans Foundation. They really liked the film."

Natchtrieb's efforts to self-promote the movie, "All the Way Back," are slowly gaining steam. The Creative Artist Agency in Los Angeles will host a screening later this month, with possible invites going out to well-known celebrities.

Plans for future screenings include Florida and Washington, D.C., where Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., who chairs the House Veterans Committee, plans to show it to fellow committee members.

"After I sent the guys a copy of the movie, some of them wrote back and said they felt respected by it," Natchtrieb said. "One guy described watching it with his mom and breaking down in tears. That meant more than anything to me."

On a dreary day last May, the eight veterans pulled off the Smith and packed up for their return trip home -- a trip that would take some back to Walter Reed for continued treatment.

Among them, J.R. Salzman clutched a fishing rod in a titanium claw while standing on the riverbank for one last interview. Salzman lost his arm from the elbow down when a roadside bomb detonated under his truck on Dec. 19, 2006.

Others, like Dave Folkerts, packed his rod and reel and spoke fondly of the placid trip. In 2005, shrapnel from an IED punctured his left arm and severed vital nerves, leaving his hand partially paralyzed.

The flotilla, run by Lewis and Clark Expeditions, included nine boats and around 20 people. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks waved the $1,500 recreation fee for the trip while avid fishermen Trapper Badovinac and Rob Creel provided expertise along the way, suggesting stoneflies, San Juan worms and mayflies, among others.

"The contrast of the war, warriors, the wounds, and setting it in one of the most beautiful spots in America -- it disarms people that are afraid to approach veterans, particularly disabled veterans," said Shad Meshad, president and founder of the National Veterans Foundation, which plans to help promote the film. "It's very intimate, very natural and unpretentious. It just draws you in."

Nachtrieb is no stranger to powerful stories. His background includes television, commercials and a two-year stint as Reuters' chief photographer in China from 1987 to 1989, where he documented the Tiananmen Square massacre and the ethnic unrest in both China and Tibet.

For the past three years, Nachtrieb has served as supervising producer and director for the Travel Channel's "John Ratzenberger's Made in America." He skipped season five last year to produce "All The Way Home."

"I made a very conscious choice not to project my point of view on these guys' story," Nachtrieb said. "The movie is politically neutral. My film was about respecting their story."

In the 13 months that have passed since the trip, Natchtrieb has stayed in touch with several of the vets he interviewed, including Folkerts, who now works for Project Healing Waters, which takes veterans like himself on fishing trips.

But some of the men Nachtrieb has lost track of. Even so, he said, he was touched by the soldiers he filmed those cold days in May on a slack Montana river.

"Something about the combination of the honesty and openness of the soldiers in telling their story -- some of it a very dark story -- in contrast to the beauty of Montana and the heart of America is very poignant.

"When I watch a lot of movies on the subject of post traumatic stress disorder, they put in insurgent images and violent subjects. You put up emotional armor when you see that and it leaves you less open to learning about these guys. In my film, it's all on the river and its all about these soldiers."

Click here for more about "All the Way Home."

Reporter Martin Kidston: 447-4086 or mkidston@helenair.com