New Project - Welcome Home
“Welcome” documents a radical five day healing retreat for men and women Veterans (and family members) from wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam. Filming follows them from the time of their arrival to the culminating event of the retreat, a large public welcome home ceremony/performance where the Vets present vivid personal poetry they have written on the retreat to a sold out audience of the civilian community. Through the telling of stories and the beauty of poetry, these courageous men and women offer the terrible truth, their undeniable humanity and a rare insight into the role of the community in healing in the aftermath of war. The goal of this lyrical film is to provide an unusual answer to a vital national question: how can we truly bring our Veterans home from war? By presenting the complex issues involved in the return from war in a poetic and visually striking way, the civilian public can shed some of its emotional denial and take on some of the psychic pain carried by Vets - the Post Traumatic Stress, drug addiction, depression, family problems,isolation, racism and the collective grief of it all. The film will be used in local communities around the country to raise awareness, promote Veteran/Civilian dialogue, and to catalyze widespread direct public involvement with Veterans and their return.