Reporter's Notebook

Wrap interview with the GIFF founders

Here’s my final interview with Brandon Millett and Maj. Laura Law-Millett, Army Reserve, ret., founders of the GI Film Festival.

I caught up with the husband-and-wife team with a few hours left to go in the festival. How did it go, I asked?

“I think our program is far beyond what a program would normally be for a second-year festival, so we’re thrilled,” Brandon said. The festival’s second run was much bigger than the inaugural version, with more sponsors, films, veterans organizations and “celebrity star power,” he said.

I also asked about the crowd mix they were looking for. From my observations at the festival, the largest group in attendance at most times was film industry people, followed by veterans, general public and lastly active-duty troops.

“I think the crowd here is pretty much what we wanted. We want military, and we’ve had tons of retired military,” Laura said. But by the same token, “I think people who serve in the military know how great the military is. We’d like to get some more people who are just moviegoers who want to learn more about the military and learn about the different lives of military folks.”

That response seems to be more in line with the festival’s purpose. From Brandon and Laura’s various expressions, the GIFF’s mission boils down to honoring American service members by depicting their service and sacrifices in an accurate, respectful and honorable way. This serves different populations in different ways: GIs have a chance to see movies that don’t insult or stereotype them, and the general public has a chance to experience the humanity and everyday lives of military members.

The founders also want to see more filmmakers and industry professionals at future GIFFs in hopes that the festival’s selections will be picked for distribution deals, and filmmakers will “be inspired to produce a film that portrays GIs accurately and positively,” Brandon said.

Brandon and Laura were both very pleased with the success of their festival, and I definitely saw some positive reactions among festivalgoers all weekend. What stuck out to me most is that during Q-and-As after screenings and during panels, most veterans offered up stories and opinions rather than questions. These films and the discussions really opened up veterans and got people talking about their experiences. That’s not something you see often outside of military-only gatherings, so the feeling of security and acceptance seems to me a marker of success.

So now begins the planning for next year. The GIFF founders identified a few major challenges on the road to their goal of expansion: assembling the right team; securing more funding; and avoiding labels.

The sponsorship and staff problems are common to any start-up non-profit. It’s the labels that will be hardest for the GIFF to tackle.

For one thing, the founders know they have to prove they aren’t just a war-movies-buff reunion.

“We try to provide a lot of emotional tones,” Brandon said. “We don’t just screen one kind of film, the classic war film. It’s possible someone could come to this film festival, watch every single film in it, and not see the same thing twice.”

“The films are not history-class films,” Laura said. “You’re not going to feel like you’re in eighth-grade history class.” The GIFF wants to show films that a general moviegoer would pay $10 to see at a theater and be happy they did, she said.

The festival also runs the risk of being labeled politically, as pro-war or jingoistic.

“We really want to avoid any political labels,” Brandon said. “As a film festival, we don’t take a position on any particular conflict. … Really, we called this the GI Film festival because we want to place the focus where it belongs. We could have called it the military film festival. We decided to go with the GI Film festival to focus on the experience of the American GI inside and outside the theater of war.”

Later, he added: “We’re not into whitewashing the impact of war. It’s devastating and horrible, and there’s no way you can do that, nor would we ever seek to do that. Nor would anybody in the military seek to do that.”

Whether or not that’s true of the entire military, Brandon’s statement rings true of the GIFF’s films. “The Last 600 Meters” and “This is War” especially portray troops as sometimes doubtful of their commanders’ decisions, and none of the troops in the films said, “I sure am glad to be here at war.”

The founders look forward to opening up their festival to more films next year, even though they watched 7,000 minutes of submitted footage this year (of course, 6,000 minutes of that was “Gods and Generals” … well, almost). Through the festival, they hope to introduce more GIs to the film industry, which was described all weekend as being completely insulated from the military world.

“It really takes getting more military folks into Hollywood to correct the problem,” Brandon said.