Where to Watch on Veterans Day

More than half a century after six Black soldiers carried out dangerous reconnaissance missions behind enemy lines in Vietnam, their story is headed to movie theaters across the country this Veterans Day.

Soul Patrol, the award-winning documentary from director J.M. Harper, will screen in more than 110 theaters nationwide Wednesday, Nov. 11, including more than 90 AMC locations, according to distributor Kino Lorber.

The expansion follows the film’s theatrical opening Friday, Nov. 6, in New York City, with additional screenings planned throughout November.

The documentary chronicles the experiences of the Vietnam War’s first all-Black Long-Range Reconnaissance Patrol (LRRP) team, a six-man unit assigned to Company F, 51st Infantry, whose missions took them deep into enemy-controlled territory.

For decades, the soldiers’ contributions received little attention outside military circles. Now, after a successful run on the film festival circuit, their experiences will reach audiences across the United States during a holiday honoring those who served.

The Forgotten Soldiers Behind ‘Soul Patrol’

The documentary is based on Vietnam veteran Ed Emanuel’s 2003 memoir, Soul Patrol: The Riveting True Story of the First African American LRRP Team in Vietnam.

Emanuel, who served with Team 2/6 of Company F, 51st Infantry, also served as an executive producer on the film, helping bring the soldiers’ experiences to the screen more than two decades after his book was published.

The filmmakers also drew from the personal archives of the veterans and their families.

According to the film’s production credits, Emanuel, John Willis, Willie T. Brown, Lawton Mackey Jr. and Sylvia Pinckney contributed archival materials, giving the documentary access to personal records of the soldiers’ experiences.

LRRP teams gathered intelligence, monitored enemy movements and conducted surveillance far from the relative safety of larger American formations.

Operating in small groups, the soldiers often had to avoid detection while moving through territory occupied by North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces.

Emanuel’s team ran missions around Cu Chi, a region known for its extensive network of underground tunnels and entrenched enemy positions.

Harper’s documentary brings those accounts to the screen through interviews with surviving team members, archival photographs, personal recordings and Super 8 footage captured during the war.

Rather than relying exclusively on military histories or accounts written decades later, the film allows the veterans to revisit their experiences together.

The documentary also examines the racial discrimination the soldiers confronted while serving their country during one of the most turbulent periods in American history.

The filmmakers placed the veterans’ experiences within the political and social upheaval of the late 1960s, drawing on archival material from CBS, NBC, the Library of Congress, the Vietnam Center and the Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive at Texas Tech University.

The historical footage includes coverage of the Tet Offensive, the civil rights movement and the growing opposition to the war.

While the men fought overseas, Black Americans at home continued struggling for equality under the law. That contradiction became part of the soldiers’ experiences and remained with them long after they returned from Vietnam.

Sundance Award-Winning Documentary Reunites Vietnam Veterans

Soul Patrol premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, where Harper received the Directing Award for U.S. Documentary.

In announcing the award, Sundance jurors praised Harper’s combination of archival material, reenactments and personal testimony, particularly his examination of the psychological effects of war on Black veterans whose service had often gone unrecognized.

The documentary later screened at several festivals, including True/False, Full Frame, DC/DOX and the Sarasota Film Festival, where it won the top documentary prize.

Kino Lorber acquired the film’s North American distribution rights in May, setting the stage for its wider theatrical release. In announcing the acquisition, Harper credited Emanuel with helping shape the documentary and said he hoped the film would bring greater recognition to the soldiers.

Ed Emanuel trusted us with a story that he and these soldiers have carried quietly for half a century, and our hope has always been that the film could help restore their place in history, Harper said in a statement released by Kino Lorber.

For Emanuel, telling the story has been a decades-long effort. His memoir first introduced readers to the team’s experiences in 2003, but bringing those memories to the screen took years.

The documentary brings the surviving soldiers together in a hotel for a reunion decades after their service in Vietnam. As the veterans revisit their experiences, the conversations turn to combat, the men they lost and the memories they have carried since returning home.

The film also uses dramatized sequences to recreate aspects of their wartime experiences, drawing on the veterans’ accounts and personal archives.

Where to Watch ‘Soul Patrol’ on Veterans Day

The film’s expanded release arrives as Americans prepare to observe Veterans Day Nov. 11, allowing audiences to learn about a group of Vietnam veterans whose military service has received relatively little attention.

According to Kino Lorber, Soul Patrol will screen in more than 110 theaters nationwide, including more than 90 AMC locations, on Wednesday. Kino Lorber plans additional theatrical engagements throughout November.

The documentary runs approximately 100 minutes and features original wartime footage, interviews with surviving team members and dramatized recreations of their experiences.

For Emanuel and his fellow veterans, the nationwide release brings their story before audiences more than 50 years after their missions ended.

For theater locations, tickets and updated showtimes, visit Kino Lorber’s official Soul Patrol showtimes page.

The official trailer is available on YouTube.