Sundance success for "Ground Truth"
It was fantastic news hearing that Patricia Foulkrod's moving film The Ground Truth, about the ongoing failure to deal with wounded, maimed, and messed up soldiers returning from Iraq, has been chosen by The Sundance Film Festival for its world premier. Faulkrod's incredible patience, combined with her rapport with the returning soldiers, has brought as a very intimate portrayal of the anguish of the soldier's return while confronting the inadequacy of the policies that are supposed to care for and protect them.
Sundance, despite its growth and critics fear of commercial intrusion, still stands as the blue chip venue for independent films; the place to be to build momentum to get your film an audience. 7,000 films are thrown into the Sundance hopper and only 120 come out. The Ground Truth will make its debut on January 20th in Park City, Utah.
Faulkrod's film (strongly supported by AlterNet in its early stages) hits the scene just as the language from the Bush administration is talking victory in Iraq again -- mainly due to studies and focus groups, not to results on the ground. The Bushites saying, "It's not so bad, the Iraqis will be taking over, soldiers will be coming home soon." But many know better, they know how messed up the soldiers are and what they are coming home to. As Faulkrod offers: "How can they talk of victory when 150,000 vets coming home are traumatized by this war, not to mention what has been done to the people of Iraq?"
