When a documentary about sculpting a war memorial beats out stiff competition for an audience award, it signals more than just a film’s popularity—it hints at a cultural hunger for meaning. That is exactly what happened at the 2026 Newport Beach Film Festival, where Traci L. Slatton’s film HEROIC: Sabin Howard Sculpts the National WWI Memorial took home the Audience Award for Best Art, Architecture + Design Feature, sharing the honor with Leica – A Century of Vision.
Traci L. Slatton’s documentary ‘Heroic’ captures Sabin Howard’s nine-year battle to create the National WWI Memorial sculpture. January 2027 digital release.
HEROIC is not just a film about the making of a monument; it is a testament to what is required to create enduring art in the modern age.”— Traci L. Slatton, Director, HEROICNEWPORT BEACH, CA, UNITED STATES, November 6, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — The film, which documents the grueling nine-year effort to revive monumental narrative art, centers on sculptor Sabin Howard and his creation of A Soldier’s Journey—a 58-foot-long, 25-ton bronze masterpiece now installed at the heart of America’s National WWI Memorial in Washington, D.C. Freestyle Digital Media, a division of Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group, has acquired digital distribution rights, ensuring the story reaches a wide audience.
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For institutions like the Vatican’s cultural organizations, the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC), and international art academies, HEROIC represents what its makers call a “profound cultural turning point.” The film documents a return to classical humanism and the painstaking physical labor required to immortalize the human spirit in bronze—a bold departure from the fragmentation of postmodern art.
Slatton, an internationally bestselling author, did not simply observe Howard’s process from a distance. She inhabited three overlapping roles during the project: director, project manager, and wife to the master sculptor. As Howard wrestled clay into submission, calling upon real combat veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan as live models, Slatton helmed what she describes as a war room. She captured the ticking-clock saga with unfiltered intimacy, fighting federal design battles, navigating pandemic shutdowns, and managing intense marital and studio tensions.
“HEROIC is not just a film about the making of a monument; it is a testament to what is required to create enduring art in the modern age,” Slatton said. “Sabin and I were driven by a duty to the veterans who sacrificed everything, and to a global culture that is hungry for art that elevates our shared humanity. To see this resonate so deeply with audiences at Newport Beach is deeply satisfying. We can still build beautiful things. And the world is ready to embrace monumental storytelling once again.”
KEY HIGHLIGHTS OF THE MONUMENT AND THE FILM
– Unprecedented Scale: A Soldier’s Journey is the largest freestanding high-relief bronze sculpture in the Western Hemisphere, featuring 38 larger-than-life figures.
– Profound Human Connection: Modern combat veterans stepped in as live models, bringing their own experience of combat into the faces of the World War I soldiers.
– A Cultural Renaissance: The monument and the film represent a bold rejection of post-modern fragmentation, returning to the highest standards of classical craftsmanship and narrative art.
– Extreme Filmmaking: A rare, nine-year firsthand account where the director’s responsibility to deliver a multimillion-dollar memorial clashed directly with the demands of compelling cinema.
– For cultural institutions seeking art that inspires, unites, and remembers, HEROIC stands as both a blueprint and a battle cry. The film proves that the capacity for generational, transcendent art is not lost to history.
HEROIC: Sabin Howard Sculpts the National WWI Memorial will digitally release in January 2027. For early screening access, press inquiries, or institutional exhibition requests, visit heroicdocumentary.com or contact the media representative below.
MEDIA CONTACT
Michelle Czernin von Chudenitz
EPEC Media
michelle@epecmedia.com | 310-600-0575
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Traci L. Slatton is an internationally bestselling author, director, and project manager. Her unique position at the intersection of literary storytelling, monumental art production, and documentary filmmaking provides an unmatched lens into the human cost of artistic creation.
Michelle Czernin von Chudenitz
EPEC Media
+1 310-600-0575
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Why it matters: This award signals that audiences are hungry for stories about craftsmanship, sacrifice, and the creation of lasting beauty—especially when those stories are told with the raw intimacy of a filmmaker who lived the struggle alongside her subject. HEROIC reminds us that monumental art, and the will to create it, is not a relic of the past but a living, breathing possibility for our own time.
