Kickstarter

THE PROJECT

Halfway Home is a story of courage and selfless service that weaves the personal stories of soldier’s accounts from the battlefield with their painful efforts to reintegrate back home.   

I never served.  And after spending the past three years making Halfway Home, I’ve come to regret that fact.  I met a real war hero, Sergeant Tommy Rieman, when I was doing short web films for the Army.  As I grew to know him, I could see the part of the war that he brought home with him, that dogged him, and brought great suffering to his family.  His willingness to share his story--along with Max Cleland, Aimee, Tree, Rob, and others, allowed us to make this film with hopes of reaching as many veterans and their families as possible.

Many of our servicemen and women have been coming back from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with debilitating wounds, some that you can see, and some you can’t.  One in five are thought to be bringing the war home with them in the form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).  It’s these hidden wounds that can make reintegrating back into society painfully difficult.  Rates of suicide, substance abuse and domestic violence have soared.  Former Senator and Vietnam Vet, Max Cleland says in the film, “We appreciate and honor more than ever, their service and sacrifice.  But we understand less and less what they’ve gone through and what they need from us.”

“We can count the number of vets coming home that need help,” says Dr. Judith Broder.  “And we know that this type of trauma is inter-generational.  What we can’t count is the number of brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, parents, cousins, friends—all who will be affected by the absence and then the return of someone who is a very different person.”  Broder, a retired psychiatrist, founded the Soldier’s Project, a non-profit group that provides free mental health care to suffering veterans and their families. 

I did my best to create a film that would inspire vets and their families to seek care for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD.    Each screening has brought forward veterans and family members seeking help.  Little did I know the impact it would have on others.   The first time we screened the film in our home, a friend commented that he now knew without a doubt that his father suffered from PTSD from the Battle of the Bulge.  A yoga teacher was inspired to start teaching classes for veterans with PTSD.  Most surprising of all, an extreme liberal, anti-war, anti-military, political activist said, “this film needs to be seen not by veterans, but people like me.  For the first time, I get it.  Not just for this war, but all the others before”.   

Today, Halfway Home is finished due mostly to the generous funding of a private donor, but it cannot be shown publicly or distributed in any form until we cover the cost of stock footage licensing and Errors and Omissions Insurance.  Our goal is to make the DVD available to order beginning July 4th.  To do this, we need your help to raise $12,000 in the next 30 days.

Early screenings have shown that the film is an effective and powerful tool leading veterans and their families to seek help and more importantly teaching everyone else what we need to do to support our troops when they get home.

The most significant thing you can do is spread the word about this funding campaign, please pass this along to friends and family, post it on your blog, Twitter and Facebook pages – anything to help us get the word out!

OUR GOAL AND WHERE DOES YOUR DONATION GO?

Your kind donations will go towards the licensing of stock footage for DVD distribution and Errors and Omissions Insurance.  We can’t release the film without these, so your help is deeply appreciated.  If our goal is exceeded, please know funds will go towards incurred debt and additional stock footage licensing fees for TV or theatrical release.

With Kickstarter it’s all or nothing – if we don’t meet our $12,000 goal we get nothing and your pledge will not be processed.

And please, please, please pass this along to friends and family, post it on your blog, Twitter and Facebook pages – anything to help us get the word out! 

HOW TO PLEDGE?

Just click the green “Back This Project” button in the upper right-hand corner and follow the directions.

If you have any questions or comments, please click "send message" on the right side of the page and either I, or one of the producers, Katy Fox, will get back to you.

Thank you so much for your support. It means the world to us.