Area Veterans Will Premiere Short Films at UW Jan. 25

Some area veterans, including one University of Wyoming student, recently had the opportunity to work through their mental health challenges via the creative outlet of filmmaking.

The Patton Veterans Project (PVP) will host a communitywide screening to premiere three short films created by area veterans Thursday, Jan. 25, at 6 p.m. in the Wyoming Union. The free screening, which is open to all veterans and the public, will be followed by a meet-and-greet reception for the filmmakers and guests. To RSVP, go here.

“The Veterans Services Center has been working with the Patton Veterans Project with the goal of educating the public about the mental health challenges veterans and military members face through filmmaking workshops,” says Joshua Hepworth, senior project coordinator for the UW Veterans Services Center and Veterans Programming. “The filming has been completed for this first iteration, and we are going to be doing an initial screening Jan. 25 in the Wyoming Union.”

Led by Benjamin Patton, grandson of World War II Gen. George Patton Jr., and a team of professional film instructors, PVP hosted a free three-day “I Was There” film workshop Dec. 1-3 on UW’s campus to help veterans learn a new skill while working with fellow veterans and, through these screenings, help their families and community members connect and understand one another.

“The video camera is the most powerful and widely used communications tool ever invented. Virtually everyone -- soldiers and civilians alike -- understands the medium,” Patton says. “What better way to connect people. Film is a language we all speak.”

Founded in 2012, PVP has helped some 1,400 veterans make more than 300 films at major military bases and colleges across the U.S. and abroad. The workshops, which are free and open to all veterans regardless of age or service branch, have proven highly therapeutic, particularly for those coping with service-related post-traumatic stress, isolation and transition to civilian life. Participating veterans work in small groups in a safe setting, creating visual narratives about subjects and experiences that matter to them.

“It’s a camera and a computer and, since I’ve been home, it’s the most therapeutic thing I’ve done,” says one Iraq War veteran.

A dozen veterans participated in the workshop held at UW. Eight were from the local area, while others were from California, Michigan, Missouri and Texas, Hepworth says.

“They collaborated in three teams to produce one film per team,” he adds, citing the film’s titles as “Pawns,” “About the Brothers” and “Family First.”

Darleen Hansen, of Laramie, is a veteran and nontraditional student at UW pursuing her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in studio art and is in the Honors College. She participated in the making of “About the Brothers,” a short film set in a bar at Christmas.

Hansen, 71, explains the veterans essentially played themselves and addressed their own personal struggles in the film. Her character is sad because her mother is not doing well and her family lives in Florida. Her character is unable to go home for the holidays, as she is waiting for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to gift her a treatment plan for her cerebrovascular disease. While Bing Crosby’s “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” plays in the background, Hansen’s character commiserates with David, the bartender, who is sad and worried because his son is on his third tour of duty in the military, and Mike, a customer who shares he lost three service brothers on Christmas Eve some years ago.

At the end of the film, the bartender suggests the three meet up again at the same time and place next year, and they all toast.

“This workshop was very helpful for me in that doing this role helped me embrace my reality,” Hansen says. “I was alone for Christmas, but I felt peace and joy.”  

Hansen served in the U.S. Navy from 1977-1980 with a rank of lieutenant junior grade and taught at the Naval Academy Preparatory School in Newport, R.I.

“I got out of the service in April 1980. My time in the service was very challenging being a female officer,” Hansen says. “My brothers were not very accommodating. My only disability back then was being female.” 

“In my 30-plus years of working with veterans, I’ve never seen anything as transformative and powerful as this,” says Chuck Drebing, a longtime Cheyenne VA psychologist who co-wrote a clinical study of the film program. “The vast majority leaves the experience with a more positive attitude toward their future, ready to move forward with their lives.”

In the VA-sponsored study, 80 percent of participating veterans not previously enrolled in any mental health care sought support within two months of completing the PVP workshop, according to information in a PVP release.

PVP will hold film workshops throughout the year at colleges across Wyoming and Colorado. The next workshop at UW is scheduled April 12-14, with short films created in that workshop set to screen May 15 at UW.

Interested veterans may inquire or register at www.pattonveteransproject.org, call Mike Leeman at (970) 657-5500, or email workshops@pattonveteransproject.org. Space is limited.