The Short Life of Jose Antonio Gutierrez

José Antonio Gutierrez was one of the 300,000 soldiers sent by the U.S. Army to war in Iraq. A few hours after the war began, his picture was broadcast all over the world: he was the first American soldier to be killed in the war. He was there as a so-called 'green-card soldier'--one of approximately 32,000 fighting in the ranks of the U.S. Army for a foreign country. The film tells the moving and nearly unbelievable story of a one-time street kid from Guatemala who headed north along the Pan-American Highway--full of hopes and desires for a better future--ultimately to die far from home. Retraced is his path--from Guatemala through Mexico and into the USA--interviewing, along the way, those who knew José Antonio.