For Immediate Release Contact: Daphne Larkin
March 16, 2010 802-485-2886
NEWS RELEASE
Communications students to screen The War at Home for veterans and their families
“The viewer is witness to a confidential conversation between combat vets. This is a discussion that you wouldn't be privy to otherwise”
NORTHFIELD, Vt. (March 16, 2010) – Norwich University communications students have completed a documentary film, The War at Home, and will be screening it for veterans interviewed for the film and their families on March 28.
The screening will also be attended by veterans featured in Vermont Fallen, the previous Norwich documentary about Vermonters killed in Iraq.
The film will be presented on Sunday, March 28 at 3 p.m. in Dole Auditorium and will be followed by a reception. Students and news media are invited.
For The War at Home, students interviewed veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and explored issues soldiers face upon returning to civilian life.
The project was inspired by the families involved in Vermont Fallen who were worried about the soldiers who survived and came home bearing the burden of witnessing the effects of IEDs, said communications Professor Bill Estill.
Bonds among people involved in the two projects, student producers and student veterans grew strong during the course of the work.
“The core group of student producers was and is on track for commissioning and they are friends with the student veterans in the story, so there was an enormous bond between those in front of and behind the cameras,” Estill said. “The viewer is witness to a confidential conversation between combat vets. This is a discussion that you wouldn't be privy to otherwise.”
Students made the film to help veterans process their experiences, to give insight to those preparing to deploy and their families and to inform the general public of the effects of serving in war.
The War at Home by the numbers:
· The project began with a summer research grant in 2008.
· Twenty-four veterans were interviewed.
· Producers collected 70 hours of tape.
· More than 50 students worked on the film.
· The film runs just over an hour.
The film was shot in High Definition 1080i widescreen 16x9 aspect ratio.
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Norwich University is a diversified academic institution that educates traditional-age students and adults in a Corps of Cadets and as civilians. Norwich offers a broad selection of traditional and distance-learning programs culminating in Baccalaureate and Graduate Degrees. Norwich University was founded in 1819 by Captain Alden Partridge of the U.S. Army. Norwich University is the oldest private military college in the United States of America and the birthplace of our nation's Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC). www.norwich.edu
