Where Soldiers Come From screens at 4:30pm on September 11th in the Johnson Center Cinema, followed by a Q&A with director Heather Courtney and subject Dominic Fredianelli.
Where Soldiers Come From paints an intimate portrait of three friends' four-year journey from Michigan's Upper Peninsula to Afghanistan and back again. Dom Fredianelli takes art classes and paints large murals in the abandoned buildings that belonged to a once-thriving copper mining industry; Cole Smith is the comedian in the group; and Matt Beaudoin ("Bodi") has a history of military service in his family and is proud to serve his country.
Heather Courtney's film begins in Hancock, Michigan. She films the guys and their families in their everyday lives, revealing the economic realities that contribute to their decision to enlist and creating poignant portraits of a community and its people. In December 2008, the unit leaves for Afghanistan, where the men spend most of their days sweeping the countryside in tanks and on foot looking for improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Armored vehicles shield the soldiers from the brunt of the damage, but the men are still shaken each time they uncover a new bomb and receive concussions and other injuries that seem mild at first, but have a cumulative effect. While the soldiers look for bombs, their families and loved ones back home try to get through their daily routines.
Although members of the group all suffer physical distress, their emotional reactions vary. Bodi starts out loving his job, which he calls "the most exciting" because he gets blown up the most; he later admits that the war has turned him into "a racist American" who hates everything about Afghanistan. Cole provides comic relief with good-natured wisecracks, but internalizes his stress and develops an ulcer and adult asthma. Dominic discovers empathy for the Afghans, particularly the children, that he believes have been forced into bad situations by economic necessity. "Before I came to Afghanistan, I knew about compassion, but never really felt it."
Back home after deployment, Bodi and Dominic both suffer from traumatic brain injury, TBI, the long-term effects of which can range from headaches, dizziness and vertigo to problems with memory and reasoning. In 2010, the military estimated that 115,000 troops have suffered mild TBI since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began, though some studies put the number at several times that, and tens of thousands are estimated to suffer from ongoing symptoms.
Some soldiers are rendered unable to drive a car, read a newspaper article or help their children with their homework, and according to a study in June 2010 by NPR and ProPublica, many of those troops who suffer from TBI receive little or no treatment for lingering problems. For National Guard soldiers, it can be even harder — although they are eligible for Veterans Administration benefits, it is more difficult to find support since they are not on a military base like active-duty soldiers and are often in rural areas like northern Michigan.
See the GMU event flyer.
The event is free and open to the public.
Where Soldiers Come From and Heather Courtney at GMU is sponsored by the Honors College and Film & Media Studies, and co-sponsored by Department of Criminology, Law and Society, University Life, and the Everlasting Life Cafe.
August 23, 2013