My Social Justice group, Fighters 4 Fighters, came across the movie “When I Came Home” directed by Dan Lohaus. I came across the film after researching organizations about Homeless Veterans. I contacted Dan to see if he would be interested in working with my group. He responded, and we interviewed him. After my group watched the movie, we were inspired to show the rest of the LREI eighth grade. We hoped that the documentary would demonstrate how difficult it is for people to come home from war and fight another battle in society to survive. Afterwards, we had a group discussion and asked questions like “What are your initial thoughts on this documentary?,Was there anything that confused you?, Are there any scenes that stood out to you and why did they?, What would you do if you were inn any of those people’s shoes?, What do you think Dan Lohaus was thinking when he was filming?”. The discussion went really well, and we decided to show the movie during our teach-in. Many people were surprised that veterans were given no support after coming home and how the military didn’t make enough of an effort to help the veterans. One of the suggestions we got was to end the film at a dramatic point because It showed the most impact and let the audience connect with the protagonist.
February 25th was the day of the teach-in. We had the director of the movie, Dan Lohaus, come in from Boston to talk about the experience he had while filming and how he got involved with homeless veterans. Before the teach-in Dan told us that anyone can make a difference, and that he wants to stay in contact with us to help figure out ways to put veterans back on their feet. After showing the movie the audience seemed very moved and connected because we stopped the film at the point where Herold Noel (the main character in the film) started crying. People talked about how cruel it is to have veterans on their own after war and asked how they could make a difference. We told them just by buying an apple and some water for a veteran on the street is enough to contribute to change. The movie was a big part of our social Justice project.
