After news of the My Lai massacre was finally made public, Vietnam Veterans Against the War organized the Winter Soldier investigation, a public inquiry into war crimes committed by US forces in Vietnam. In February 1971 dozens of veterans gathered in Detroit to report crimes they had witnessed or committed. The event received scant media attention at the time, but thanks to a collective of filmmakers and veterans, the proceedings were recorded and edited into one of the most powerful indictments of US participation in the war—“an unflinchingly clear-eyed extended gaze at military-brand, all-American inhumanity” (Johnny Ray Huston, Bay Guardian).