Thank You for Your Service | |
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Directed by | Tom Donahue |
Produced by | Ilan Arboleda Tom Donahue Patty Casby Steve Edwards Jacques Levy Regina Kulik Scully Gerald Sprayregen Matt Tyson Kate Lacey-Kiley |
Starring | Robert Gates Mike Mullen David Petreaus Loree Sutton Sebastian Junger Nicholas Kristof Dexter Filkins Patty Murray Rudy Giuliani Lawrence Wilkerson Dave Sutherland |
Cinematography | Peter Bolte Justin M. Garcia |
Edited by | Jill Schweitzer |
Music by | Leigh Roberts |
Distributed by | Gathr Films |
Release date |
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Running time | 88 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Thank You for Your Service is a 2015 documentary film by Tom Donahue that focuses on our superficial understanding of war trauma and the failed policies that result. Observing the systemic neglect, the film argues for significant internal change and offers a roadmap for hope. The film premiered at DOC NYC in November 2015. [1]
Thank You for Your Service chronicles mental health amongst U.S. military veterans. The film interweaves the stories of four struggling Iraq War veterans with candid interviews of top military and civilian leaders. Among the interviewees are Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Generals David Petraeus and Loree Sutton, Sebastian Junger, Nicholas Kristof, Dexter Filkins, General Peter Chiarelli, Gary Sinise, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, Senator Patty Murray, Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and Colonels Larry Wilkerson and Dave Sutherland. Called “gut-wrenching” and “important” by The New York Times , the film is an examination of failed mental health policy in the U.S. military. [2] The film argues the creation of a Behavioral Health Corps is necessary to ensure accountability in the military chain of command toward mental health. [3]
Thank You for Your Service, premiered at DOC NYC in November 2015. [4]
A CreativeChaos vmg production, the film was produced by Ilan Arboleda, Tom Donahue, and Matt Tyson in association with the Sprayregen Family Foundation and Regina K. Scully & Artemis Rising Foundation (The Invisible War, The Hunting Ground), executive-produced by Gerald Sprayregen and co-executive produced by Regina K. Scully. [5] It won Best Documentary at the 2016 G.I. Film Festival and the Impact Award at the 2016 Illuminate Film Festival. [6] G.I. Film Festival Co-Founder Laura Law-Millett called it "one of the most powerful, impactful films I have ever seen." [7]
After its release at DOC NYC, Thank You for Your Service was shown at the Miami International Film Festival, Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, Montclair Film Festival, and Maine International Film Festival, among others. [8] [9] [10] [11]
It was acquired by Gathr Films and opened theatrically in September / October 2016 in New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. [12]
The American Red Cross and U.S. Senators Angus King, Patty Murray, Ron Wyden, and Joe Donnelly hosted the D.C. premiere; King and Donnelly attended and participated in a Q&A hosted by CBS' David Martin. [13] The film had its New York premiere aboard the USS Intrepid in New York Harbor, hosted by the Thayer Leader Development Group at West Point. [14]
U.S. Senator Angus King (I-ME) wrote about the film:
"Art has the power to raise awareness of important questions and can also often spur us to action. By highlighting the personal struggles of individual service members who returned home from Iraq, Thank You for Your Service is a powerful indictment of our treatment of many of those returning with scars not as clear as those from physical injuries but often no less debilitating. As the film vividly illustrates, in the early years of our post-9/11 wars, the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs simply were not prepared to deal with the large numbers of returning veterans who needed access to mental health services. The inescapable conclusion is that when we commit America's men and women to war, we must always think long and hard about how we will take care of them when they return. Raising awareness is the first step in understanding this imperative, and as such, this film acts as both a powerful tribute to those to whom we owe so much as well as a call to a renewed commitment on their behalf." [7]
Legislation based on this film has been proposed to Congress in 2018 under Congressman Seth Moulton as the H.R. 5515, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). This would require an addressing of PTSD issues and the creation of mental health services in all sectors of the military. [15]
In its review, The Hollywood Reporter wrote, “If this film cannot spur politicians to act, nothing will.” [16]
The Los Angeles Times review stated, "With the same clarity and fluency he brought to far sunnier material in Casting By , Donahue pinpoints the devastating intersection of personal trauma and institutional neglect in an age of perpetual war." [3]
Film Journal International wrote, "Eliciting outrage and shame in equal measure, Thank You for Your Service details the lack of mental-health support offered to the men and women of the United States Armed Forces—and the tragic consequence of that neglect." [17]
Patrick Joseph Murphy is an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd United States Under Secretary of the Army. He was the first veteran of the Iraq War to be elected to the United States House of Representatives, representing Pennsylvania's 8th congressional district from 2007 to 2011. Murphy is a former anchor of Taking the Hill on MSNBC. Murphy is currently on the faculty of Wharton Business School and the Distinguished Chair of Innovation at the United States Military Academy.
Sheffield DocFest, short for Sheffield International Documentary Festival (SIDF), is an international documentary festival and Industry Marketplace held annually in Sheffield, England.
Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) veterans organization founded by Paul Rieckhoff, an American writer, social entrepreneur, advocate, activist and veteran of the United States Army and the Iraq War. He served as an Army First Lieutenant and infantry rifle platoon leader in Iraq from 2003 through 2004. Rieckhoff was released from the Army National Guard in 2007.
Body of War is a 2007 documentary film about Iraq War veteran Tomas Young. Bill Moyers Journal featured a one-hour special about Body of War including interviews with filmmakers Ellen Spiro and Phil Donahue.
Let There Be Light—known to the U.S. Army as PMF 5019—is a documentary film directed by American filmmaker John Huston (1906–1987). It was the last in a series of four films directed by Huston while serving in the U.S. Army Signal Corps during World War II. The film was produced in 1946 and was intended to educate the public about post-traumatic stress disorder and its treatment among returning veterans, but its unscripted presentation of mental disability caused the U.S. government to suppress the film, and it was not released until the 1980s.
Military psychiatry covers special aspects of psychiatry and mental disorders within the military context. The aim of military psychiatry is to keep as many serving personnel as possible fit for duty and to treat those disabled by psychiatric conditions. Military psychiatry encompasses counseling individuals and families on a variety of life issues, often from the standpoint of life strategy counseling, as well as counseling for mental health issues, substance abuse prevention and substance abuse treatment; and where called for, medical treatment for biologically based mental illness, among other elements.
As defined by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, military sexual trauma (MST) are experiences of sexual assault, or repeated threatening sexual harassment that occurred while a person was in the United States Armed Forces.
Richard Ledes is an American filmmaker and writer based in New York City, best known for his 2012 feature film drama Fred Won't Move Out about Alzheimer's disease starring Elliott Gould and Fred Melamed.
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The Invisible War is a 2012 American documentary film written and directed by Kirby Dick and produced by Amy Ziering and Tanner King Barklow about sexual assault in the United States military. It premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, where it received the U.S. Documentary Audience Award. The film has been lauded by advocates, lawmakers, and journalists for its influence on government policies to reduce the prevalence of rape in the armed forces.
Sanjay Rawal is an Indian-American documentary film director who lives in New York City. His first feature length film Food Chains premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in its Culinary Cinema Programme in 2014 and had its US premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. Food Chains was produced by Smriti Keshari, Eva Longoria, Eric Schlosser, and Rawal himself. Forest Whitaker narrates. Rawal was a winner of the 2015 James Beard Foundation Award for Special/Documentary for Food Chains. The film itself shared the 2016 BritDoc Documentary Impact Award.
Tom Donahue is an American film director, producer, and co-showrunner. His work as writer, director, and showrunner includes the Paramount Plus Original docuseries Murder of God's Banker and the upcoming six-part docuseries Mafia Spies, based on the 2019 book by Thomas Maier about the CIA-Mafia assassination plots against Fidel Castro.
Seth Wilbur Moulton is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for Massachusetts's 6th congressional district since 2015. A former Marine Corps officer, he is a member of the Democratic Party.
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Thank You for Your Service is a 2017 American biographical war drama film written and directed by Jason Hall, in his directorial debut, and based on the 2013 non-fiction book of the same name by David Finkel. Finkel, a Washington Post reporter, wrote about veterans of the 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment returning to the vicinity of Fort Riley, Kansas, following a 15-month deployment in Iraq in 2007. The film is about posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depicting U.S. soldiers who try to adjust to civilian life, and stars Miles Teller, Haley Bennett, Beulah Koale, Amy Schumer, and Scott Haze. Bruce Springsteen wrote the song "Freedom Cadence" specifically for the closing credits.
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