It has been a couple of generations ago when we saw the images of body bags and heard Walter Cronkite delivering the news from the police action in Vietnam. In the conflict, lives were lost on both sides, and families had to endure the loss of a father, of a brother, of a son.

Call it what you’d like politically, but practically, wounds need to heal over time. It is the strong and current connections that veterans and others from Milwaukee that journalist and documentary film producer Mark Siegrist found. His "Bridge to Vietnam" will air on Milwaukee Public Television on Friday at 7:30 p.m.

"I’ve been working on this project for almost two years," Siegrist said before a special screening of the program at Alverno College earlier this month. "There has been quite a bit of activity in Vietnam since we’ve seen it on the nightly news."

In his research, Siegrist found the Socialist Republic is working on a blending of Communist heritage and capitalist vision. The motivation of the people and the moves they have made had created a robust economy – to the point that it could be the next big economic outlet in the world, if not just the biggest in Indochina.

"I was talking with Jeff Brown, a micro investor with a coffee grower," Siegrist said. "He helped them chance the thinking of going beyond making the average regional goods, and take the best that they have for a premium product."

Brown helped create Temple Hills Coffee, a premium product that he imported to the U.S., finding local coffee houses that want the beans to mix into their own in-house blends.

As some of the relationships Siegrist shows in the special half-hour presentation are economic, other are more humanitarian. MPTV viewers will see how the former battlefields are being transformed for coffee crop production, how a Milwaukee-based library project is assisting with children’s literacy and how the adoption of two infants – and travel to the country – has changed an Elm Grove couple’s life forever.

"This is a story about survival, forgiveness, compassion, and the rebirth of a region," Siegrist said of the project that started with a simple curiosity, "What does Vietnam look like today."

At the advance screening, it was wonderful to observe the discussion that Siegrist moderated between the people who participated in the interviews or shared personal stories and photographs for the show. It was an educational discussion that was spurred by how Siegrist put the documentary together. It was simply invigorating to see the passion on display. Political Science Associate Professor Dr. Russell Brooker brought his students from Alverno to the screening and discussion as well.

As a journalist, to get that kind of feedback is extremely rare. Siegrist deserves kudos, as does the entire team at Milwaukee Public Television for making a local program like this possible.

After the original airing, the show will repeat at 10:30 p.m. on Sunday night.