Here's an update on our film, Veteran Children: When Parents Go To War. Although we had to cancel our planned 2020 screenings due to the COVID pandemic, we were thrilled in June to be nominated for a prestigious Regional Emmy award. And we were honored to receive a film award from the Lady Filmmakers Festival. Other awards we received in 2020 were from the Miami Independent Film Festival, the Best Shorts Competition, and the Impact Docs Awards.

Now, in 2021, we look forward to having virtual film screenings and discussions, bringing together military people and civilians across the country. Our film is a springboard for conversations about the often invisible impacts of war on those who serve, their families, and their children.

Please contact us if you are interested in organizing a virtual screening.
We are eager to help you see and share the film.

Wishing everyone a healthy and happy year ahead.

As COVID-19 moves across the globe and our nation, it is taking lives, upending economies and forcing dramatic disruptions to everyday life. We at the Veteran Children Project want to express our deepest gratitude to the doctors, nurses, hospital staff, first responders and all those who are taking care of us and keeping essential services going. Their work is heroic and done at risk to their own lives. Among them are thousands of men and women who serve in the military. We say thank you to everyone on the front lines combating the pandemic.

Veteran Children: When Parents Go To War was featured on MIT Radio in Cambridge, Mass. on 1/31/20.
Talking with Linda Pinkow, host  of WMBR 88.1's What's Left program we discuss why we made the film,
the profound ways children and families are impacted by a family member going to war, and how we hope
the film will bridge the military-civilian divide.

PLEASE JOIN US at an important screening of our documentary
film Veteran Children: When Parents Go To War
Sunday, November 3 at 2:00 pm at the Coolidge Corner
Theatre, Brookline, MA.

The film is a half hour long and will be followed by a
community discussion moderated by Alan Khazei, co-founder
of CityYear. All proceeds will be donated to Home Base Program,
a Red Sox/MGH partnership which provides life-saving clinical care
and support for the treatment of the invisible wounds of war to
veterans and their families.

Panelists Susan Hackley, the film's producer, Martha Jackson,
co-producer, and Jacque Francona, Family Outreach Coordinator
at Home Base Program will share the stories of military families,
examine the different costs of war, and explore ways that civilians
and veterans can come together.

On Monday, Sept. 9, 2019, we are pleased to be screening our documentary film,  Veteran Children: When Parents Go To War at the Herbert C. Kelman Seminar at Harvard University. The screening will be followed by a discussion focused on the theme How to Bridge the Military-Civilian Divide. We welcome you to join us to discuss this relevant topic in our nation as we enter the eighteenth year of our post 9/11 wars.

The screening and discussion will take place at 4:30-6:30 pm, Tsai Auditorium,
                                                                      CGIS South, 1730 Cambridge St., Cambridge, MA. The event is free and open
                                                                      to the public. If you are in the Boston/Cambridge area, please join us!
 
For more information, go to: https://www.pon.harvard.edu/events/kelman-seminar-military-civilian-divide
                                                                
 

At a film screening at Harvard Law School on June 5, producers Susan Hackley (right) and Martha Jackson (left) introduced their new documentary film, Veteran Children: When Parents Go To War to friends, colleagues, and family. The film shows how children are affected by a parent's deployment to war in Iraq, Afghanistan, or Syria. More than two million military children have a parent who has served in our wars since 9/11. Often these children struggle alone with their fears and anxieties. We can all support these children and families and help bridge the divide between military and civilians in our country. Please let us know if you want to show this important film at your place of work or worship, a veterans group, a high school or university, or in your community.

We are so pleased to announce that on April 18th, our documentary film Veteran Children: When Parents Go To War had its premiere broadcast on PBS – WFYI in Indiana! Many military families we interviewed for the film, members of the Indianapolis community, friends and family gathered to watch it, enjoy a celebratory party, and have a post-broadcast discussion.   

The audience responses to the film were overwhelmingly positive. Many learned for the first time about the sacrifices and struggles military families experience when a spouse and parent goes to war, how they cope and demonstrate remarkable strengths. Military families said that the film accurately and poignantly captured how war has profound impacts on their lives. Everyone expressed hope that we will show the film widely, as it is a way to understand an often invisible cost of war and to know more about 2 million military children whose childhoods have been shaped by their mother or father serving in our post-9/11 wars. These wars have not yet ended, and children are still being deeply impacted, as their parents continue to deploy and serve in war.  
 
We are delighted with the many requests we have already received to show the film. And we are excited about the next phase of our film project, as we bring the film to a broad audience, including high schools and colleges, community groups, and military service organizations. If you would like to show this important and illuminating film to a particular group or organization, please let us know.