“Deeply emotional. . . . a fine documentary by an experienced and talented filmmaker.”
— Robert Mackey, The Huffington Post
Following President Obama's announcement of executive action to help veterans of the U.S. armed forces, POV presents the U.S. television premiere of Where Soldiers Come From on Thursday, November 10th (check local listings). It wasn’t long after Dominic Fredianelli, a sensitive, artistic high school graduate in a remote town in northern Michigan, signed up for the National Guard that his buddies started following his lead. In exchange for just one weekend of training a month, they would earn a $20,000 signing bonus and much-needed college tuition support. Before he knew it, 10 friends were in the group. They knew there was a chance that they’d be sent to war sometime during their six-year stint, but, as Cole Smith, Dominic’s best friend said, “I wasn’t really doing anything; my buddies had already joined. . . . I figured, ‘Twenty Gs, one weekend a month, let’s do it!’”
Thus begins director Heather Courtney’s new film, Where Soldiers Come From, which paints an intimate portrait of these friends’ four-year journey from teenagers stuck in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to soldiers in Afghanistan. The documentary will have its national broadcast premiere the day before Veterans Day, Thursday, Nov. 10, 2011 at 9 p.m. on PBS as a special presentation closing the 24th season of POV (Point of View). The film will stream in its entirety on the POV website, www.pbs.org/pov/wheresoldierscomefrom, Nov. 11 – Dec. 11. American television’s longest-running independent documentary series, POV is the winner of a Special Emmy Award for Excellence in Television Documentary Filmmaking,an International Documentary Association Award for Best Continuing Series and the National Association of Latino Independent Producers’ 2011 Award for Corporate Commitment to Diversity.
Shooting in vérité style, Courtney focuses on three of the friends — Dominic, who takes art classes and paints large murals in the abandoned buildings that belonged to a once-thriving copper mining industry; Cole, the comedian in the group; and Matt Beaudoin (“Bodi”), who has a history of military service in his family and is proud to serve his country. They change from carefree teenagers who spend their days swimming in Lake Superior and drinking at bonfires to soldiers getting hit by homemade bombs in Afghanistan and combat veterans dealing with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd).
Where Soldiers Come From starts in Hancock, the friends’ and Courtney’s hometown. The director 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.
“Where Soldiers Come From is an American story about growing up and trying to change your situation without privilege or resources,” says Courtney. “It’s about the people who fight our wars and the communities and families they come from. “I felt it was important to follow these guys for a long time before they ever became soldiers so that the viewer would really know them and their families,” she continues. “For these young men and their loved ones, the war doesn’t end when they come home. I hope my film can help people better understand the war at home — the one that affects the parents, girlfriends and loved ones left behind when soldiers are deployed and the one that continues when they come back and try to start their lives again.” Where Soldiers Comes From is a production of Quincy Hill Films and ITVS.
About the Filmmaker:
Heather Courtney, Director/Producer
Heather Courtney is a director and producer whose documentaries, including award-winners “Letters From the Other Side” and “Los Trabajadores/The Workers,” have aired on PBS and screened at festivals worldwide. For her most recent project, Where Soldiers Come From, she returns to her hometown in rural Michigan to follow the lives of a group of friends before, during and after their National Guard deployment to Afghanistan. Courtney was named one of Film Independent's Top 10 Filmmakers to watch. She recently received the prestigious United States Artists fellowship and has received grants from ITVS and the Sundance Documentary Fund, among others.
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