SOC grad students debut homefront documentaries

Media Credit: KELLY BARRETT / THE EAGLE WAR STORIES - Mariam Ahmadi Simpson, one of the producers of "Homefront: Stories of America at War," speaks about the challenges she faced while working on the documentary.

Seven AU graduate students saw their work pay off Wednesday night with the screening of their documentaries made in lieu of a thesis.

Thirteen students enrolled in School of Communication professor Rick Rockwell's summer class competed to make the best documentary about the Iraq war on the home front. The best were chosen to be part of a documentary airing on MHz network Saturday at 8 p.m.

Michael Wargo, Jennifer Tyre, Brittany Anne Keil, Cara Schayer, Elizabeth Mendes, Mariam Ahmadi Simpson and Glenn Luther were the seven producers chosen. Their subjects ranged from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder to the United States' view of Al-Jazeera.

Wargo's documentary is about the war's impact on a small Pennsylvania coal town, Windber. This created a traveling nightmare for Wargo since he was interning in D.C. while trying to make the film.

"I was working five days a week, driving to Pennsylvania on weekends and editing on weeknights," he said. "Our topics were due at the end of May and the projects were due at the end of June, so it was a crazy month."

Rockwell, who worked in the news industry for 27 years, said he thought this project would help students achieve their goals. Some students used footage from their documentaries on their resume tapes, he said.

Ahmadi Simpson's documentary focused on the story of a returned paratrooper with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Originally, she was going to use Patrick Campbell, a veteran who has gone on to study law at Catholic University.

"Patrick was sort of the PTSD poster child," she said. "I didn't want to use him because he already had so much media coverage, and I also didn't think he was representative of the entire PTSD community."

Schayer's documentary focused on military chaplains, whom she called "completely selfless" because they do not go to fight but rather to help others.

"You don't really ever hear the spiritual aspect of war," she said.

Two wounded brothers are the subjects of Tyre's documentary on disabled veterans. Tyre's view of the class was different from her peers.

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