Institute History
Description
Waves, frozen in mid-roll, along the desolate winter shores of Lake Superior create a lunar landscape. Nearby, an abandoned building from a once-busy copper mine sits alone in a field of blowing snow. In the distance, a group trudges through the snow and wind, toward the camera. As they slowly emerge, we hear Dominic in voice-over:
“My name is Dominic Fredianelli. I’m 20-years-old. I’m a member of the 1431st Combat Engineering Brigade of the National Guard, in Calumet, Michigan. I joined the Guard mostly because of the money, and soon my other friends started joining. The money and the free school kind of pull you in. Right now, we’re just waiting to go to Afghanistan. They say it could happen any minute.” The friends stop in front of the camera, bracing themselves against the bitter wind.
Where Soldiers Come From tells the story of childhood friends from a small town who sign up for the National Guard when they graduate from high school. Enticed by a signing-bonus of $20,000 (in a county where the average annual income is $21,186) and college tuition support, they make the once-a-month commitment, and go on living civilian lives until they’re deployed to Afghanistan two years later. At its core, a film about growing up, Where Soldiers Come From captures their four-year journey from carefree teenagers stuck in their town, to soldiers looking for roadside bombs in
Afghanistan, to 23-year-old veterans trying to start their lives as their experiences in war continue to haunt them. Where Soldiers Come From is an intimate look at the young men who fight our wars, the unspoken class system that plays a part in sending them, and what happens to them when they come back.
The narrative for Where Soldiers Come From will unfold naturally and chronologically, reflecting the cinema verite style of the filmmaking. This hand-held, verite footage of the daily lives of these young men and their families interweaves with more formal visual elements shot on color and black and white 16mm film, which establishes the place as a character, and also marks the change of seasons and passage of time.