Blog2021-10-26T10:07:02-07:00

Blog

“I continue to learn that our actions do speak louder than our words… yet here’s a few of mine anyway.”

—Love, Beth
author/producer/co-director STRANGER AT HOME

6Jun, 2019

My Personal Experience Of Recognizing And Healing Trauma

June 7th is the birthday of this guy, "The Traveler", as the painting is titled. He'd have been 60 years young. A sun doesn't rise where I don't give him gentle hell for bowing out of the life experience before aging became a noticeable annoyance. "If I have to go through it, you sonofabit@%#, then so should you," is the telepathic jab. Then again, he was never one to sit around and complain about any aches or pains... anything, really.

22Feb, 2019

What The U.S. Military Tells The American Public About The Mental Healthcare Of Their People: Simply Not True

It’s the right thing to do. Today, that’s my answer when anyone asks, “Why should I fund, distribute, broadcast, watch, even care about this documentary?” My name is Beth Dolan. I am a filmmaker, cinematic journalist, writer and storyteller of the human condition. January 2019 marked the five year anniversary of me and my filmmaking team committing to making “Stranger At Home”, a documentary intended to illuminate the wholly unnecessary American Military Mental Health crisis.

20Jul, 2015

7 Powerful Reasons Why A Mandatory Mental Health Reentry Program Will Bring 22 Military-Related Suicides Per Day Down To Zero.

Eighteen months ago, when my film team and I began making our feature-length documentary STRANGER AT HOME, we had a sense that our worlds would be forever shifted by the veterans, their family members and the mental health experts we’d meet to learn about the impact and devastating ripple effect of the invisible wounds of war – post traumatic stress, TBI and the even deeper moral injuries of the combat experience. Our sense has become a reality and then some. None has rocked our consciousness and creativity as much as Dr. Mark Russell, Former Commander and 24-year Naval psychologist who revealed that there’s a perfectly relevant, evidence-based blueprint for a successful mental health reentry program for veterans.

15Jul, 2015

An Inspired (And Practical) Path To A Mentally Healthier World.

As Forrest Gump said, “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get.” That couldn’t be more true about the documentary filmmaking process.  A completely non-linear journey, it has three distinct aspects from my experience.  It’s one part the gathering of “clay” -- the raw material to eventually sculpt a piece.  It’s one part detective work – the process of discovery to find the clay.  It’s one part total and complete surrender – the willingness to be open and flexible on the path of discovery.

25May, 2015

Every 65 Minutes

"Every 65 minutes a member of the military -- be they active duty or veteran -- takes his or her own life". As I read this the other day, while going over interview transcripts for the documentary, I was really struck, as if I'd heard it for the first time since being on the journey of making "Stranger At Home." Had I?

5Apr, 2015

The Purpose Of Having Purpose: An Ode To Our Veterans

I consistently hear from veterans, who feel comfortable opening up to me and my filmmaking team, that one of the biggest contributing factors to their emotional and psychological injuries, upon leaving their service life behind, is a loss of purpose. A concise, simply stated concept, right? A loss of purpose.

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