Back in February, Troy and I interviewed Aron Gaudet, Director of the stunning documentary, “The Way We Get By.” When I redeployed, I came through Bangor, Maine. These people are true patriots and they deserve this recognition.
The movie opens in New York City at the IFC Center on July 17th, 2009 and I wanted to take a moment to remind you a little about it if you didn’t catch the interview.
The SXSW Special Jury Award winning The Way We Get By is a deeply moving film about life and how to live it. Beginning as a seemingly idiosyncratic story about troop greeters - a group of senior citizens who gather daily at a small airport to thank American soldiers departing and returning from Iraq, the film quickly turns into a moving, unsettling and compassionate story about aging, loneliness, war and mortality.
When its three subjects aren’t at the airport, they wrestle with their own problems: failing health, depression, mounting debt. Joan, a grandmother of eight, has a deep connection to the soldiers she meets. The sanguine Jerry keeps his spirits up even as his personal problems mount. And the veteran Bill, who clearly has trouble taking care of himself, finds himself contemplating his own death. Seeking out the telling detail rather than offering sweeping generalizations, the film carefully builds stories of heartbreak and redemption, reminding us how our culture casts our elders, and too often our soldiers, aside. More important, regardless of your politics, The Way We Get By celebrates three unsung heroes who share their love with strangers who need and deserve it.
This documentary will bring tears of joy, sadness, and patriotism to your eyes! The hardest thing in the world to hear is when that gentleman says, “My life doesn’t mean a whole lot to me, but if I can make it mean something to somebody else…that’s my endeavor.” He sort of sums up the entire movie right there.
Joint Forces Command HQ in Brunssum, Netherlands is sponsoring a video contest called “Why Afghanistan Matters”. The intent is to provide a "boots on the ground" perspective of the military mission in Afghanistan from the point of view of those most closely involved.
They will not edit clips for content, but will exclude contest submissions that jeopardize troop security, or show objectionable, disturbing or offensive material.
The contest is open to military personnel who are serving, or have served the mission in Afghanistan. You can follow progress by subscribing to RSS updates. or checking out our Twitter feed.
The contest will be open for submissions during June, July and August. They will post your videos once approved as a qualifying submission. From 1 to 30 September, they will allow further video rating, and winners will be selected on 1 October.
Winners determined by highest average rating. One (1) winner will receive a digital camcorder, valued at approximately $600 US; three (3) winners will receive digital camcorders valued at approximately $150 US each.
So make your video, upload it and tell NATO and the World, why Afghanistan Matters. Go to their website at contest.afghanistanmatters.com/ to learn more, see the official rules and upload your video.
In this terribly audible video, we interview American Soldier blogger Matt. This interview was conducted in the lobby at the end of the conference, so the audio is overmodulated and very noisy. But, it’s still recognizable so we’re posting it!
Troy interviews OIF/OEF veteran Genevieve Chase about her testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and her just completed panel, which will be published shortly. The panel was titled “Taking Care of Veterans”.
This panel is titled “The New Media Agora”. This one of the more popular panels in my opinion, which was odd considering it was the last and people were getting tired. What is the impact of the “new media” on issues concerning national security, military doctrine and concept development, training, education, and lessons learned? A discussion of the issue by those at the frontlines of the debate by Moderator, Greyhawk of Mudville Gazette; Andrew Exum of Abu Magawama, Bill Nagle of Small Wars Journal, Bill Roggio of The Long War Journal.
This is a bit long, so it may take awhile to download.
In this video, we sit down with Uncle Jimbo from Blackfive and SOG Media to discuss his thoughts on how the conference went this year. Jimbo, never one to shy away from honest assessment, graciously spoke with Troy:
Moderator, David Stanford of The Sandbox, publishing, freelancing with Gary Trudeau of Doonesbury; AirForceWife of SpouseBUZZ, Lily Burana of I love a Man in Uniform book; Uncle Jimbo of Blackfive; JD Johannes of Outside the Wire; Craig Stewart of the National Museum of Americans in Wartime.
