Where Soldiers Come From

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Originally produced as a motion picture in 2011.
In Michigan's snowy Upper Peninsula, job opportunities are few, and friends are usually for life. For Dominic Fredianelli and his high school buddies, joining the National Guard offered a $20,000 windfall and assistance with college tuition--all for only one weekend a month. Little did they know. This documentary follows three of these young men over four eventful years: through basic training and a 2009 deployment to an explosives unit in Afghanistan; to visits with their families while they are overseas; and the rocky return home, without commentary. Focusing on the reverberations of war in small, close-knit communities the film offers a commentary on class, as the real cost of distant political decisions are illuminated, as well as the shame of a country with little to offer its less fortunate young people than a ticket to a battlefield.
DVD, NTSC.

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Michigan young men in Afghanistan submitted by Kimberlyrol on August 18, 2014, 9:35am This is a documentary which follows three friends from the Upper Peninsala in Michigan who have joined the National Guard for its promise of $20K per year and college benefits in exchange for a weekend per month of military duty as they travel to Afghanistan and back. It gently covers the topics of traumatic brain injury and emotional disorganization that results from the experience on the part of the soldiers, and the difficulties families at home have of dealing with their loved ones and the potential for harm or death. Although this documentary is covering young men from Michigan, there are not many references to the fact that they are in Michigan, other than home town footage. The documentary does not glorify nor strongly condemn the National Guard. However, it does show that it is not necessarily all that it promises in a gentle way.