Filmmaker Captures The Effects War Can Have On Military Children In New Documentary

    /24-7PressRelease/ - EATONTON, GA, April 27, 2007 - As the psychological needs of military personnel and their families increase during current war times, documentarian and military brat expert, Donna Musil, has been traveling the country with her film, "BRATS: OUR JOURNEY HOME," the first documentary about the effects of growing up in a military family. The film is currently on a national tour across the country.

"BRATS" is the first non-fiction film about a little known subculture that is estimated to number 15 million Americans, and growing, because of the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Currently, 700,000 children in the U.S. have at least one parent deployed overseas for military duty.

"Military Brat" is a term used for over a hundred years to describe children who grow up on military bases around the world.

"The response from Iraq War brats is an uncanny mirrored image to the brats of the Vietnam generation," stated filmmaker Donna Musil. "When I show the film near military base high schools, the kids come up and thank me for creating a film that speaks to their current lives growing up."

Although there have been no scientific studies, Musil's preliminary evidence seems to indicate that the average brat heading into adulthood has a higher percentage of problems pertaining to alcohol and substance abuse, leading into a higher than average divorce rate than national averages, particularly, if they were raised during a time of war. If past behavior is any indication of future behavior, current teenage brats may expect the same or greater.

"The military is trying very hard to combat some of these issues," Musil believes, "but the fact remains - when soldiers go to war, they experience trauma. To escape this trauma, some soldiers drink. They may not drink at the Officer's or NCO Club, but they drink at home - and this affects their children. It's not something anyone can control. It can only be managed. But knowing they're not alone can lift a great weight off a child's shoulders."

The non-profit organization, BRATS WITHOUT BORDERS, which produced the documentary, was founded by Musil to bring all brats together to acknowledge their unique lives and start a healing process for those whose experiences were more challenging than others. The response to the film and the organization has been tremendous. In one year, thee have been over a million and half hits on the website, www.bratsfilm.com As a result, there are now plans to put in place a mentoring program for Vietnam generation brats to open up dialogues and help current-day Iraq generation brats deal with the issues of loss of family, friends and sense of not belonging anywhere.


Press Contact:
Vicky Gallion, Publicist
Brats Without Borders
(310) 937-2284 Office
(310) 613-0709 Cell
[email protected]

For further details about the documentary, "BRATS: OUR JOURNEY HOME" or the non-profit organization, BRATS WITHOUT BORDERS, you can go to www.bratsfilm.com or call (404) 358-2525.

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