People often ask~ why this subject?  

It was the Summer of 1972, my first semester at The Pennsylvania State University, University Park campus, where I participated in a protest rally to end the war in Vietnam, and bring our troops home.  We were a massive crowd gathered in front of Old Main, which housed the offices of university officials.  In the upper windows of the building, I saw men dressed in suits, taking photographs with long lenses of the crowd as the campus police assembled around us.  A feeling of disbelief came over me as I remembered the Kent State shootings that shocked the nation only two years prior on May 4, 1970. 

The war was the central issue of the 1972 presidential election, and for me, it was the first time I felt I could finally express my voice, to join my peers to 'hate the war, but love the warrior'.  I was not one of those radical people who disrespected the veterans when they returned home ~ I never understood that.  In fact, I saw Vietnam Veterans protesting along side me, wanting the bloodshed to end for both sides. The Paris Peace Accords on "Ending the war and restoring peace in Vietnam" were signed in January of 1973- officially ending direct U.S. involvement in the war and a cease-fire was declared.  However, the last 'official' American military action occurred on May 15, 1975, and many more U.S. soldiers were killed during those two years.  Vietnam was the first televised war, and was the longest war in our country's history, until the Afghanistan War, which now surpasses it going on ten years.

In 1999, I began research for a screenplay I was writing about Vietnam Veterans, and read a horrifying statistic on the VA website: over one-third of those homeless on the streets were veterans and most of them served during the Vietnam War era.  This gave me great pause and still does to this day. Unfortunately, the current wars in Iraq & Afghanistan have similarities to the Vietnam War and in many ways, worse consequences for our returning veterans. This is what propelled me to create this documentary and to venture on a journey to learn more.

The subject of this film includes but has expanded beyond the tragic issue of homelessness and attempts to show the myriad of hidden, psychological, and emotional wounds which can lead to a multitude of heartbreaking, life-altering situations for Veterans and their families.  My goal is to help with the healing process by giving Veterans and their families a Voice to express themselves, raise awareness to the issues, and to awaken a nation from the coma of apathy and hopefully, move Americans enough to truly care.  I hope in some small way to make a difference in the lives of those who were called to serve and have given us so much.   

 ~ Nina M. Gilberti