Service: When Women Come Marching Home 2012
Distributed by Women Make Movies, 115 W. 29th Street, Suite 1200,New York, NY, 10001; 212-925-0606
Produced by Marcia Rock and Patricia Lee Stotter
Directed by Marcia Rock
DVD , color, 55 min.
Sr. High - General Adult
War, Military, Rehabilitation, Activism, Rape, Women’s Health, Mental Health
Date Entered: 08/01/2013
Reviewed by Sara Parme, Digital Services Librarian, Daniel A. Reed Library, SUNY FredoniaService: When Women Come Marching Home opens with a returning military troop being commanded to ‘fall out.’ An apt beginning to document the end of several women’s active service and the ramifications of their returning home.
Most of the events depicted are the common obstacles veterans face: homelessness, PTSD, therapy, service dogs, and problems with the VA. While the challenges for returning female soldiers are wide-ranging and all deserve to be spotlighted, the 55 minute film would be better served focusing exclusively on those issues specific to women veterans. This is when Service is at its strongest. Unfortunately, the film doesn’t know if it wants to address gender-specific issues, follow the stories of a few female vets in-depth, or address all the issues documented on online female veteran support groups.
While that would mean cutting out one of the film’s most affecting scenes: a hidden camera capturing McDonald’s employees harassing a female vet for bringing her service dog into the restaurant, highlighting the ignorance of the general public, it would save the audience from jumping from undercover camera images to unrelated meetings on Capitol Hill.
With the population of women veterans expected to double in the next 5 years and women being 2-4 times more likely to experience PTSD, the two most arresting topics are when veterans and health care professionals discuss Military Sexual Trauma and women-centered VA resources. A common hurdle is women not feeling they ‘did enough’ to claim the term “veteran” and the corresponding benefits. And when they do seek VA assistance, they’re lucky to find a women’s bathroom, let alone female doctors, staff, and doors that lock.
Service ends with voiceovers of women reading aloud entries from an online support group. The voices are overlaid one on top of another, everyone reading at once. While it conveys the complexities of the lives and issues of female veterans returning from war and their need for support, no one idea or voice comes through. Which is precisely the problem watching this film.
Awards
- Chagrin Documentary Film Fest Honorable Mention