The Ground Truth
Directed by Patricia Foulkrod
2006, 78 minutes
The Ground Truth is a powerful look at the effects of war on our soldiers who have fought in Iraq. It premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and is available on DVD through Focus Features.
About the Film
Hailed as “powerful” and “quietly unflinching,” Patricia Foulkrod’s searing documentary feature includes exclusive footage that will stir audiences. The filmmaker’s subjects are patriotic young Americans—ordinary men and women who heeded the call for military service in Iraq—as they experience recruitment and training, combat, homecoming, and the struggle to reintegrate with families and communities. The terrible conflict in Iraq, depicted with ferocious honesty in the film, is a prelude for the even more challenging battles fought by the soldiers returning home—with personal demons, an uncomprehending public, and an indifferent government. As these battles take shape, each soldier becomes a new kind of hero, bearing witness and giving support to other veterans, and learning to fearlessly wield the most powerful weapon of all—the truth.
Director’s Statement
This film is not about the right or the left, or about blue or red states. It is about the hundreds of thousands of U.S. soldiers who have been released by the military after serving in Iraq—and the truth they hope to share with their fellow citizens.
I produced and directed The Ground Truth because I felt it was time to stop hiding behind the politics. No one was writing or talking about thousands of invisible injured soldiers, for the most part young men returning to young wives who must now be their caregivers.
It became clear, while filming, that the broken hearts and shattered lives I was seeing were profound and pervasive—whether the soldiers and their families were for or against the Iraq War.
I wanted to show how insidious and deep the effects of killing in combat truly are—whether in self-defense or not—so we could create a national dialogue about our “consciousness of killing.” I also felt I had to capture the aloneness and despair many returning soldiers silently experience when their psychological and physical needs are not recognized or provided for.
Those needs for soldiers have not changed since Harold Russell and The Best Years of Our Lives. It is sixty years later, and we need to recognize not only that the U.S. is in very different war circumstances but also that our fighting men—and, now, women—face tremendous challenges back home.
So I tried to create a film that might blow the yellow ribbons off the trees and encourage people to really wrap their arms around our soldiers and their families. I wanted us to sit with the broken hearts and troubled minds of these young veterans, so we can take responsibility for the suffering they experience in our name.
And most importantly, I wanted to share with all Americans the profound wisdom these young men and women have to impart. Their first step to healing is our listening.
Director’s Bio
Patricia Foulkrod, (Director/Producer), a New Jersey native, began her film and television career as an assistant in news and public affairs at WNET-TV, New York City’s PBS flagship station (Channel 13). After working her way up to producing some of the station’s programs, she further honed her producing skills on industrial films for such companies as Boeing, Mercedes Benz, Air France, and Disney.
After moving to Los Angeles in the early 1980s, she line-produced the acclaimed 70mm documentary, The Living Seas, and produced and directed, They’re Doing My Time, an hour-long PBS documentary about children whose mothers are in prison. She later executive-produced a CBS telefilm adaptation of the latter, entitled Locked Up: A Mother’s Rage, which was directed by Bethany Rooney and starred Cheryl Ladd and Angela Bassett; she also co-produced the six-hour documentary series, The Native Americans, for Turner Broadcasting System.
