The Subjects

Soon after September 11th I heard stories about young people lining up to join the military. To find out why they joined I began visiting a recruiting centers in the Bronx, where I found a young man named Nelson who was exuberant about what the army would offer him. Nelson had been captivated by the army’s ad campaign and was hoping to gain respect in his neighborhood by returning in his new uniform.

I was preparing to fly down and film Nelson, who was to be the only subject, in basic training when a friend introduced me to Sara, a young woman who was passing through New York City a few days before joining the army. Driven to join to prove to her father that she was not a failure, Sara was leaving behind a dream of become a dancer. I met her at a café in Union Square, a small woman with a soft smile; she breathed youth and uncertainty. I listened to her hopes for how the military would change her life. I decided to follow her journey and flew down the next day to North Carolina where she was saying goodbye to her father.

When I arrived at the army base I was informed that Nelson was being separated from the army for poor conduct and that I would not be allowed to film him. Having just spent thousands of dollars of my own money to fly down from New York with crew, equipment and rental car, I was stuck at Fort Benning with no subject. I was told I needed to find a new subject. My cinematographer starting rolling the camera as I walked from row to row, looking for a needle in a haystack. And then we saw Thaddeus with a twinkle in his eye, getting in trouble for not drinking from his canteen.

Thaddeus defied the typical profile of a recruit. A middle-class up an upcoming stockbroker from an educated family, he gave up his job to join the war on terror. I chose him as a subject within an hour of meeting him. He was extremely likeable and engaging.

And so a film that was originally going to be about one young man from the Bronx became a story about three young people joining the army in search of direction in their lives.

Movie or Bust

I worked on the film for a year and a half with no funding before Erik and Arlene found out about it and came on board. I was employed full-time at a major advertising agency in New York City as I was simultaneously shooting at bases across the states. It seems insane in reflection, but at the time it was just what I had to do to make the film. I would book an evening flight, bring all my equipment to my office, and fly directly from work to Atlanta or St. Louis or Raleigh, NC. Then rent a car and drive in the middle of the night with my cinematographer to some crappy hotel near the base where we would share a room. We would sleep for a few hours and wake up at 3:30am to get to the base on time for reveille. After the shoot, I’d take an early morning flight, comb my hair in the airplane bathroom, and cab it straight to my job, where I’d sit down at my desk and try to concentrate on print ads of baby bottles for eight hours before I could go home and sleep.