INTERVIEW: HEATHER COURTNEY

Director Heather Courtney.

To heed the call up

By Don Simpson

Research shows that for the most part U.S. soldiers come from poor, uneducated, rural families, and Heather Courtney’s documentary, Where Soldiers Come From, gives us an example of one such group of young soldiers from the Upper Peninsula of Northern Michigan. These five childhood friends -- with Dominic and Cole as their de facto leaders -- joined the National Guard when they graduated from high school because they were enticed by the college tuition support and $20,000 signing-bonus.

When Courtney first meets the young soldiers, they are 19-years old. Where Soldiers Come From follows the soldiers for four years, beginning with their once-a-month training sojourns at the local National Guard base and remaining by their sides as they are deployed to Afghanistan to sweep for IEDs. The narrative then returns stateside as the five 23-year-old combat veterans attempt to readjust to their civilian lives again.

JEsther Entertainment chatted with Heather Courtney just before the premiere of Where Soldiers Come From at the 2011 South by Southwest Film Festival.

JEsther Entertainment: As a documentary filmmaker, what is your approach to capturing reality?

Heather Courtney: I actually just saw a documentary about documentary filmmaking and one of the filmmakers said: What happens in front of the camera is not always completely the truth, what I hope is to capture a moment that is true and allow the viewers to see a truth for themselves. For me that is a very significant statement because any time you are piecing something together, it becomes an edited and filtered version of reality. What I hope I capture are sincere moments that will help people learn something about themselves and connect with the people on the screen. I try to just let the people in my films say what they want to say. I do not push them at all.

JE: At times it seems very obvious that  the subjects are talking to you, the director. Occasionally, they even say your name. It seems as though you are purposefully informing the audience that this is a film. This is not complete reality. There is someone behind the camera.

HC: [Laughs.] We tried to take a lot of that out, but one person in the film in particular would always say my name and it would always be during very true and emotional moments. But let’s be honest, it is a documentary. There is clearly someone behind the camera asking the questions and the subjects would not be answering these questions if I was not there.

JE: Economics play a major factor in Where Soldiers Come From, specifically because that seems to be the driving force that prompts the subjects of your film to initially join the military.

HC:The the subjects of the film are from the very northern tip of the Upper Peninsula of Northern Michigan; it is a very rural area, very isolated. The nearest city -- Green Bay, Wisconsin -- is over four hours away. For people from any small town in isolated rural areas, economics are always a factor. Research has been published by Bill Bishop that shows that rural America has been effected much more so than other areas by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, because a significant proportion of young men and women from those areas have joined the armed services, often because they do not have any other economic options. The recent economic crisis has made things even more difficult for them.

JE: What changes did you notice in your subjects regarding their opinions of American politics as time progressed?

HC: They were pretty apathetic before going to Afghanistan, whereas their parents were not apathetic at all; they had some very strong opinions. The subjects were also just really freaked out about going to war. That is all they could focus on, all they could handle. Once they arrived in Afghanistan, their political opinions grew directly from their personal experiences. That seems so much stronger to me than someone who forms their political opinions from something they saw on television or read in the newspaper. When they would talk amongst themselves, they would form very informed and articulate opinions. It seems to all come out of their disillusionment and bitterness towards what has happened during their time in Afghanistan.

JE: How much freedom did you have in Afghanistan as far as when and what you could film?

HC: They let me go on almost every mission. They were pretty open to me being there. I was surprised.

JE: Can you explain how you captured the footage while out on military maneuvers from the perspective of the soldiers?

HC: I had these little helmet cams that they would attach to the gun turret on the top of their vehicle and they would attach others to the dashboard to shoot their faces as they were driving. Sometimes they would attach the cameras to their helmets too. There was also a military camera that was installed on the top of the trucks that captured the visuals of the IED explosions.

JE: What has the military’s reaction been to Where Soldiers Come From?

HC: They have not really given me any reaction. They had to vet it to make sure there were not any security issues, but that is the only thing they have commented on.