Where Soldiers Come From

Feeling trapped in their rural hometown, five friends join the National Guard and begin their four-year journey from teenagers to soldiers in Afghanistan to veterans.

Film Signature Image
Series
POV
Premiere Date
November 10, 2011
Length
90 minutes
Funding Initiative
Open Call
  • Award laurels-r Created with Sketch.
    2011 South by Southwest Film Festival (SXSW)-Best Editing - Documentary Feature
  • Award laurels-r Created with Sketch.
    2012 News and Documentary Emmy Awards-Outstanding Continuing Coverage of a News Story – Long Form Award
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    Producer/Director

    Heather Courtney

    Heather Courtney is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, and a Guggenheim, Sundance, and Fulbright fellow. Her film Where Soldiers Come From (POV) was funded by ITVS, and won an Emmy and an Independent Spirit Award. Other films include The Unafraid (America ReFramed), and the IDA and SXSW Award-winning Los Trabajadores (Indie Lens). 

    Other ITVS Films
    Breaking the News
    Letters from the Other Side
    Los Trabajadores/The Workers

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    The Film

    A four-year journey that takes teenagers from rural northern Michigan to the battlefields of Afghanistan and back, Where Soldiers Come From follows five high school friends who join the National Guard to pay for college. The film is an intimate look at the young men who fight America's wars.

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