Heather Courtney on her film Where Soldiers Come From
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On this Veterans Day we wanted to revisit one of our favorite features from earlier this year. Heather Courtney’s film Where Soldiers Come From is an intimate yet powerful portrait of the impact of war, not only on those directly involved but also on their loved ones and their hometowns. Courtney was drawn to film making after working as a writer and photographer for a relief agency in the Rwandan refugee camps in the mid 90s. She received her MFA in film from the University of Texas at Austin and soon after made her way back to her hometown in Michigan, wanting to tell the untold stories of small-town America that are so often missing from the mainstream press.
What she found was a coming of age story that allowed her to see her hometown through new eyes. A story that she hopes will help viewers see not only the human side of war in faraway lands, but the tragic impact of the almost invisible yet traumatic wars that follow at home.
Editors Kyle Henry and Heather Courtney received the SXSW 2011 Feature Film Jury Award for best editing for their work on Where Soldiers Come From.
Listen to this Talk of the Nation interview from November 10, 2010 on “Where Soldiers Come From, And How They Return” featuring Heather Courtney and Dominic Fredianelli.
Podcast: Download (3.7MB)
