Friday, 10/26, 9:10pm (Session XXVII)

Director/Producer: Heather Courtney 

Description: 

“A small-town life doesn’t let you live a big city dream because you don’t know how. I don’t see too many people that get out.” –Dominic Fredianelli, National Guard Recruit Waves frozen in mid-roll along the desolate winter shores of Lake Superior create a lunar landscape. Nearby, an abandoned building from a once-busy copper mine sits alone in a field of blowing snow. In the distance, a group trudges through the snow and wind. Where Soldiers Come From tells the story of Dominic and Cole who, along with several of their friends, sign up for the National Guard when they graduate from their rural high school. Enticed by a signing-bonus of $20,000 and college tuition support, they make the once-a-month commitment, and go on living civilian lives until they’re deployed to Afghanistan. As we witness Dominic and Cole trying to navigate a future for themselves, it is vital that we ask what it means for a country when one part of its society sends its children to war, while the rest of us watch.   

Biography: 

Heather Courtney won the 2012 Independent Spirit Truer Than Fiction Award for Where Soldiers Come From. She directed and produced several documentary films, including award-winners Letters From the Other Side (which was supported by a Fulbright) and Lose Trabajadores (IDA award for best student documentary), and was a co-director on Roger Weisberg’s Critical Condition. Letters From the Other Side was the Closing Night film at the Slamdance Film Festival and was broadcast on over sixty PBS stations. Lost Trabajadores won the Audience Award at SXSW and was broadcast nationally on the PBS series Independent Lens. Prior to receiving her MFA in film production, Heather spent eight years writing and photographing for the United Nations and several refugee and immigrant rights organizations, including in the Rwandan refugee camps after the 1994 Rwandan genocide.  

Contact Information: 

E-mail: quincyhillfilms@gmail.com/ heathercourtney@earthlink.com
Web site: www.wheresoldierscomefrom.com/