This is Where We Take Our Stand is currently airing on public television

Your film takes place around the Winter Solider event in March of 2008. What drew you to this subject?

DAVID ZEIGER: I made a film in 2005 called Sir! No Sir! that told the story of the G.I. movement against the war in Vietnam. This was a story that had been deeply suppressed in history and in the American psyche and had been replaced with a whole mythology that said that during the Vietnam War, the anti-war movement had targeted soldiers and basically was a movement against the people who fought the war. This was of course symbolized most visibly by the myth of solders being spat on when they returned.

I knew the reality of soldiers and vets opposing the wars is something that would both have a huge impact in this country, or should have. So when the IVAW (Iraq Veterans Against the War) announced they were going to have an investigation inspired by the Winter Solider event in January of 1971, it just was a no-brainer. I knew that I had to make that film. I also knew that I had to do it with Bestor.

BESTOR CRAM: I am a former Marine officer and participated in the G.I. movement back in 1970 when I was originally released from my contract with the Marine Corps. So there was an immediate interest when I heard from David that he was interested in making a movie about the new G.I. movement. It seemed like a natural synergy.

Nearly four years later, the U.S. has brought the war in Iraq to a close and continues to withdrawal from Afghanistan. What do you hope viewers take away from your film now?

BC: We would hope that there would be an ongoing discussion of the price paid for America’s military adventures, imperialism, occupations. Essentially, to be prepared for the way we behave in the future we need to be very diligent in how we examine our most recent enterprises. That dialogue has been suppressed particularly because any dialogue contrary to American policies was perceived as being against the soldiers as opposed to the war. We learned in Vietnam that that was wrong to blame the warrior. So we ended up not discussing the war when it came to Iraq.

DZ: I believe very firmly that these wars are imperialist and that the nature of these wars is characterized by the domination of the U.S. in that region of the world. The Bush Administration didn’t hide that that’s what their intent was. Talk of democracy and liberation continues to be pure hypocrisy and nothing defines that more deeply, more vividly, than the way the wars are conducted. It’s been said a society is characterized by its military, and I think that’s true. What’s revealed in our film more than any other I have seen is the political and social character of what the purpose of these wars is and I think the most interesting thing, this question of how society views the soldiers and how they view themselves is a good question.

One of the things very much re-written about Vietnam was why there was so much trauma coming from that war. At the time it was very clear that the trauma had to do with the fact that they had been forced to fight a war that targeted civilians and in fact killed many babies and had no purpose other than American control of that region. That is very similar to what we see in our film and the kind of trauma and the dilemma the soldiers and returning vets face. It’s not simply the horrors of war, but horrors of the particular kind of war.

One of the things that is very positive about our film is that what people are grappling with is their personal responsibility in that situation. This is a very real thing. You have a responsibility as a human being to not carry out the kind of things that people are being forced to carry out in Iraq and Afghanistan. This should be grappled with now, not just after the fact.

What are some the responses you’ve received at recent screenings?

BC: The most recent was in L.A. at the Hammer Museum and I think that the universal response was, “How can we make sure others see this?”

DZ: There was also a Vietnamese woman who felt that she wanted to hear more from Iraqis. It’s reflective of something very real that I was sensitive about, which is that every American film I have seen about American soldiers is frankly obsessed with “our boys” and “our soldiers” and here we are pulverizing these countries and leveling cities. That is very real, but for people not from our country, like this Vietnamese doctor whose family fled from Vietnam, there’s a sense of wanting to hear form the Iraqis as well.

BC: We also heard that this film is such a downer. It’s not a warm and fuzzy film. Towards the end of the film someone says “to call us heroes is to deny paying attention and engaging us with our stories.” In some respects that’s what we have learned. It’s too hard to engage these stories because it’s too hard to pay attention to them without being a wreck.

How are your main subjects doing?

DZ: Geoff Mallard is still very active with IVAW and with an agency that works with homeless vets in D.C. He is probably, of the three, the most politically active. Selena is also doing well. She is in New York City and still works with veteran’s organizations. She is in college with help from the G.I. bill. Jason Washburn is the most troubled still. He has had a very difficult time finding peace and finding his place in the world. He travels around the country a lot, and kind of floats.

What’s one lesson you’ve learned in the making of this film?

DZ: As is true with any film about war, you can never expect that there is any uniformity about how to interpret policy amongst your subjects. The only uniform response from the solider is that everyone comes back having had a negative experience.

What’s one piece of filmmaking advice you’ve received along the way that’s been particularly memorable and useful?

BC: You have to believe in the film you are working on.

This Is Where We Take Our Stand is currently airing on public television nationwide. Check local listings.

How did five female Army support soldiers — mechanics, supply clerks and engineers — end up fighting alongside the Marines in some of the bloodiest counterinsurgency battles of the Iraq War? Directors Meg McLagan and Daria Sommers give an intimate look at war through the eyes of the first women in U.S. history sent into direct ground combat, despite a policy that bans them from doing so.

Through harrowing personal stories, these women candidly share their experiences in Iraq as well as from their lives back home to form a portrait of the emotional and psychological effects of war. Watch the trailer for Lioness after the jump.

Equally important is the attention such an award will draw to the national debate over Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT.) The film explores the genesis of that policy from its inception under then-President Clinton in 1993.

Ask Not sheds light on how DADT has prevented some of America’s most talented recruits from serving their country. Examples include skilled Arabic translators so desperately needed in Afghanistan and Iraq combat, ordered to be silent and celibate or else be removed from duty.

“This was a fun award to receive and a great acknowledgment of the film and the issue,” said Symons.

The hype around Ask Not could not come at a more relevant time. At his State of the Union address this past January, President Obama vowed to repeal DADT during his first term. Soon after, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm Mike Mullen also denounced the policy before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The film also recently aired on Capitol Hill to coincide with Congressional hearings on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.

Congratulations to Johnny and his team!

Augie and Gino were living the American dream — raised and educated in the United States and proud veterans of the U.S. military. But in 1999, these two brothers were forced to leave the only country they’d ever known and had pledged to protect. Follow filmmaker Monika Navarro on her familial journey to Mexico as she pieces together the tragic events of her uncles’ deportation and opens a Pandora’s box of family secrets.

Check out a preview of tonight’s broadcast below:

Lost Souls (Animas Perdidas) premieres tonight, Tuesday, March 23 at 10:00 on Independent Lens on PBS (check local listings). A co-production of ITVS in association with WGBH-Boston and LPB.

Watch this exclusive behind-the-scenes video from Lost Souls (Animas Perdidas) in which Navarro explains the deeper themes of her film, including shifting definitions of “home” and “truth” in a family affected by addiction and deportation.

Lost Souls (Animas Perdidas) airs Tuesday, March 23 at 10:00 on Independent Lens on PBS (check local listings). A co-production of ITVS in association with WGBH-Boston and LPB.

“If you watch/record one thing … I strongly recommend THE WAY WE GET BY, Aron Gaudet’s moving documentary…”
Read full review >>

“NO SUBTITLES NECESSARY is a tale of friendship and survival that has become legend in Hollywood.”
Read full review >>

“[WILLIAM KUNSTLER: Disturbing the Universe is] a refresher course on the history of American left-wing politics in the 1960s and ’70s.”
Read more >>

On call for the past six years, a group of senior citizens have made history by greeting nearly one million U.S. troops at a tiny airport in Maine. THE WAY WE GET BY, an ITVS-funded documentary that aired last night on P.O.V., tells their uplifting and emotional journey and demonstrates the meaning of community at a time when America needs it most.

Inspired by the film, Returning Home is a new interactive website that seeks to ensure that American soldiers, both newly returned and those whose service ended many years ago, are not forgotten. Returning Home provides a place to share thoughts, photos, video or audio and to find support. Like the Maine troop greeters featured in the film, the site will honor American soldiers as they return from duty, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Visit Returning Home and learn more >>

Missed last night’s broadcast? The program is now available online in its entirety until December 12 on PBS’s video portal. Watch now >>

Learn more about the online project in this video interview with filmmakers Aron Gaudet and Gita Pullapilly and others involved in the project.

On call 24/7 for the past six years, three senior citizens have made history by greeting nearly one million U.S. troops at a tiny airport in Maine. Filled with unexpected turns, THE WAY WE GET BY tells their uplifting and emotional journey and demonstrates the meaning of community at a time when America needs it most.

THE WAY WE GET BY premieres tonight at 9:00 PM on P.O.V. on PBS (check local listings).
A co-production of ITVS in association with WGBH and Maine Public Broadcasting Network

Get the latest updates about the film and talk with others by using #wegetby on Twitter. Follow the film >>

The program will also stream online in its entirety starting tomorrow to December 12 on PBS’s video portal. Learn more >>

Nancy Schiesari, filmmaker of TATTOOED UNDER FIRE

The massacre at Food Hood was a terrible reminder of the vulnerability and mental fragility of our forces currently engaged on two war fronts with the prospect of multiple tours. One could only imagine last week’s fatal event––young men and women recruits waiting for flu shots and filling out paperwork, nervous and anxious about their eminent deployment, when suddenly they are being shot at with an automatic weapon. They had no means to escape or defend themselves.

Perhaps only families who have lost a son or daughter can understand the enormous grief that has befallen the parents and loved ones of those killed on November 5. The rest of us stand bewildered and distraught looking in from the outside at the impenetrable façade of Fort Hood.

We also carry an uneasy burden knowing there is a war going on over which we have no control, but few of us will ever experience. So who goes and why? While working on TATTOOED UNDER FIRE, my crew and I sat listening for many hours while soldiers underwent the lengthy preparation and execution of getting a custom-made tattoo at the River City Tattoo Parlor.

Tattooing satisfies a serious creative need for self-expression by soldiers in the face of anonymity and possible death––a unique art form that relies on a subtle relationship between artist and client. There are as many unique tattoos as there are reasons for enlisting: to escape small towns where there are few jobs or future prospects, to pay for college, to gain citizenship or to leave unhappy families or abusive parents. While some, mainly women, could only gain vital heath care for sick children by going to war. Others are told the discipline of the military would turn them into men.

As one of the soldiers in the film says to an elderly lady who offered to pray for him, “Lady it ain’t going to do much good, I’m either gonna get to kill a whole bunch of people or my ass is gonna die.”

Soliders must be ready to kill. Is Nidal Malik Hasan, the accused psychiatrist, the mirror image of the hate we muster up towards our enemy? Did he hear one story too many of the hate, brutality, inhuman behavior from both sides of perpetrators of violence? Did he begin to feel like a victim himself, after hearing about body parts of comrades falling to the ground to be picked up, bagged and sent home? Or the stories of Muslim children being killed by accident or because they had a bomb strapped to their bodies heading towards a convoy?

What all troops at war risk is a dangerous gamble that they may return permanently scarred by memories out of their control that bring anguish every time they flash back. And what happens to their perceptions and feelings towards people from the Middle East? Doesn’t hate turns into racism and become contagious? Slowly this seeps back into the culture and before long other groups are feeling uneasy and an otherness towards Arabs and people of Middle Eastern descent. After Pearl Harbor, thousands of Japanese Americans paid for their ethnicity by internment and losing everything they owned. What can come of fighting hate with hate, but more death and mental illness. In the meantime, we owe our soldiers fighting in our country’s name the best mental heath care available.

The documentary team of TATTOOED UNDER FIRE would like to express our deepest sympathy to the families of the brave men and women who died in the service of their country.

-Nancy Schiesari, filmmaker of TATTOOED UNDER FIRE

Get a look at what daily life is like in Killeen, Texas, home to Fort Hood–America’s largest military base:

Young men and women share their thoughts about joining the U.S. military and going to Iraq.