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About the film
Journalist Harry Sanna was embedded with the C Company Dustoff, Mountain Division, 3-10 GSAB medevac unit at FOB Shank in Logar Province, Afghanistan. Harry intensively filmed the time he spent living with the unit, heading out on missions and befriending the medics and pilots in the process.
Between 2014 and 2016, Harry reconnected with the unit in their hometowns, interviewing them and learning about how the mission affected them as they returned to civilian life.
This is their story.
Filmmaker
Harry Sanna is a documentary filmmaker, cinematographer and cross-media journalist. His work has taken him from Australia to India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, Haiti, Afghanistan, Jordan and the United States.
Between 2009 and 2011, Sanna was in Afghanistan working as an embedded journalist visiting bases in the East and South of the country. In early 2011, Harry was embedded with the C Company Dustoff, Mountain Division, 3-10 GSAB medevac unit at FOB Shank in Logar Province, Afghanistan.
Harry’s work has been featured in publications including The New York Times, The National, The Sydney Morning Herald, GlobalPost, Motherland and the Huffington Post. His work from Afghanistan has also appeared on CBS and PBS.
Director's Statement
This film’s story began when I was working as an embedded Australian journalist in Afghanistan in 2011 and met, documented and lived with the members of the helicopter medevac unit featured in the film. I have continued documenting their lives over the last six years, updating their stories as they returned home to locations all across America and periodically in the following years. All of the subjects of the film have been affected by what they (we) saw in Afghanistan.
For me, the purpose of the film was always to communicate the intensity of the medevac role and to breathe some human complexity back into our go-to concept of a veteran and the challenges that veterans face. The very different men and women from the medevac missions – from family types to fierce individuals, unwavering cynics, flippant jokers and staunch faithfuls – are now spread right across America from New York to Louisiana, Texas, Idaho, Washington, Alabama, and California. They’re pretty much everywhere. Whether still on military bases or in civilian life, they’ve all forged lives beyond who they were on that helicopter. And yet, in some ways, they are all still there.
My hope, with Trauma is to simply highlight a very small but real aspect of that war, and what it is like now for those individuals.
– Harry Sanna
Host A Screening
We’ve partnered with Tugg.com, a web-platform that enables individuals, groups, and organizations to set up personalized screenings of Trauma in theaters and community venues across the country. This is a fantastic opportunity to experience first hand the incredible bravery of the men and women who work on the front lines, keeping our soldiers safe. Not many can truly understand what these people experience every day and why their experience has had such a profound impact on their lives. This film provides unique and powerful insights on PTSD and its effects on veterans and their communities. To spark change in your area, events can be used as fundraisers and can include audience discussions. There are two ways to host a screening: In a Local Theater or in a Community Center or Campus.
In a Local Theater
Tugg’s Promoter Walkthrough will guide you through the process of hosting a screening
and getting the most out of your event!
The process is simple:
- Fill out the Event Request Form to pick the date, time, and place for your special screening.
- The theater approves the request, and you can begin selling tickets on your personalized Event Page.
- Sell enough tickets before the event deadline to confirm your screening. If you don’t meet this “Threshold,” no one will be charged and your event will be called off.
- Sit back and enjoy the movie with your community!
Community Center or Campus
- Choose a date, time, and place to show the film. Venues include: schools, religious institutions, community centers, and recreational facilities.
- Purchase a screening license. If you are partnering with a K-12 school or university, be sure to select the Educational option. We will ship you the film’s Blu-ray or DVD to play at the event.
- Fill out the Tugg Event Page Request Form so you can sell tickets to your event, accept donations, or manage free RSVPs. Someone from the Tugg Team will follow up with you to create your page!
- Sit back and enjoy the movie with your community!
