Folks,
Hey, so I just found out that June is PTSD awareness month.
I don’t know how these things get decided, yet I’m very grateful that we’ve launched our fundraising campaign for STRANGER AT HOME right before Memorial Day and the start of June for all the obvious reasons.
Honestly, we did NOT plan it this way.
Yeah, I would love to tell you that there was some genius attraction and promotion strategy that we plotted out months ago, but the truth is, we’ve been living day-to-day giving birth to this film. A lot of that process has been our willingness to learn what the situation really is for our veterans and their families and continuously craft our vision for the film from that fast-paced school of truth gathering.
And when I say “fast”, it’s been like lightening — from the moment we said “yes, we will make this film” the river ride has been swift and ‘on’.
Really, that’s the richness of documentary filmmaking for me in a nutshell — I am a student, an artist and an adventurer all at the same time. It’s what I sign up for when I commit to a big project like STRANGER AT HOME. If I’m gonna devote two plus years of my life to making a film (that’s the realistic time frame), I better be ready and excited for a steep and quick learning curve.
All to say — what you’ve seen, heard and read about STRANGER AT HOME is coming to you as quickly as it’s being experienced and expressed by us. No kidding. We are going with the flow completely in recognizing the urgency of our veteran situation and simultaneously creating a dialogue about solution and hope with this film project — in all of its stages.
As you know, we are interested in elevating the national conversation with this film. Heck, the global conversation. There’s veterans of every culture, from every country, on every continent. The psychological and emotional impact of war and combat isn’t an isolated experience for just American soldiers.
Yet, first and foremost —
We do need to take care of our own. It’s time. The heartening news is — this seems to be the growing outcry of our nation. I’m sure you’ll agree it’s not a moment too soon.
Like you, I get a lot of requests for contributions for many worthwhile projects. We’re doing everything we can to cut through all of that over-request energy and get your attention for STRANGER AT HOME because we believe this film is more than worthwhile — it’s necessary for healing.
We still need SO much help to raise funds to continue moving forward with production on STRANGER AT HOME.
Please, please continue to tell others to visit our campaign site and if you haven’t visited yet, we humbly ask that you do so as well. Spreading the word and whatever amount you can contribute truly means everything to the film’s success.
Here’s the link to the STRANGER AT HOME campaign site:
http://igg.me/at/stranger-at-home
I’m glad June is PTSD awareness month, but I think it should be every month for the rest our veterans and their families lives. They deserve no less.
Thanks for believing and doing whatever you can,
Beth
Here’s a short clip — one of the veterans that we interviewed for the film talking about how he felt responsible for the young troops under his command:
