Short Summary

What would cause a man to leave his family, parents, siblings, lover and newborn son to start a new life with a new name, join the military, and start a new family, a family who never knew of his first life? This documentary will explore the mysterious life of Charles Newcomer who, in 1933 disappeared from Reading, PA. His family presumed he had died during WWII. Only in 2017 was it learned that Charles had not only survived the war, but he had changed his name to Chadwick Barrie, married and had five more sons, none who knew of his previous life or name. 

Liam Fisher, Ben Fisher and Nick Fisher-Broin will explore the life of Charles Newcomer/Chadwick Barrie and investigate the the reasons why he made the decisions he did. 

Liam graduated with a degree in film production from Minnesota State University Moorhead in 2019.  Ben is the principal of Randolph High School in Randolph, Minnesota.  Nick is a pastor at Spring Garden Lutheran Church in Cannon Falls, Minnesota.  The three of us are descendants of Charles Newcomer’s first son, David Fisher, who never knew his father. 

This campaign is intended to fund a fun and entertaining feature length documentary project about this interesting and exciting history and help to achieve a sense of understanding, reconciliation, and closure about Charles/Chadwick and his impact on the lives of everyone in the Fisher, Newcomer, and Barrie families. 

What We Need & What You Get

We are asking for $50,000 to create this project.  

The funds will go to travel costs (we need to film in Oregon, California, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota!) as well as to the crew and equipment that will help in the filming and editing process.

Any left over funds will be geared towards film festival entry costs.

Perks for helping to fund include your name in the credits as tiers ‘Bronze’, ‘Silver’, ‘Gold’, ‘Platinum’,  ‘Executive Producer’, and ‘Executive Producer +’!

If we do not reach our entire goal with this campaign we will still strive to partially create this documentary as best we can, and will continue to try to find funding until it’s completion.

The Impact

This project is valuable to our families as it provides us with an attempt to explain and understand such a complex and layered story. 

We hope that it can inspire others to find out more about their genealogy and where their not-so-distant ancestors came from.

This will also be a very entertaining documentary movie to watch! 

Challenges & The Plan

The main challenge we face in the beginning is gathering and organizing historical documents and pictures to get the clearest picture we can.  This story is winding and complicated, but getting it into a clean and precise film is what we hope to do.

Liam has experience in filmmaking and knows many people able and willing to help achieve this documentary.  Ben and Nick have been gathering information and meeting these long-lost family members for years.

Our plan is to chronologically lay out the life of Charles Newcomer/Chadwick Barrie, film interviews of people who knew him or those close to him, where he grew up and where he moved to, as well as his life in the military, and edit it all in an entertaining and interesting way.

Other Ways You Can Help

If you are unable to make a contribution, don’t worry!  Sharing this campaign on social media is extremely helpful. 

If you know someone who may be interested in a documentary like this, let them know, too!

Thank you.