Terra Firma, a new film by Christine Anthony and Owen Masterson isn’t about wounded soldiers. It’s a story about healing and how three women turned to farming upon their return from the front lines.
Since 2001 over 280,000 women have been sent to the Middle East. Often traumatized by their experiences, many return home with PTSD, unable to cope with the daily rigors of life. Terra Firma weaves together the stories of three women veterans who were among the first to deploy, serving in Afghanistan, Kuwait and Iraq.
In the words of filmakers Christine Anthony and Owen Masterson,
We were introduced to Anna, Sonia and Althea through the Farmer Veteran Coalition, a non-profit that works to connect veterans to viable careers in agriculture we had discovered when researching our first film, GROW! When we were started thinking about a new project we knew that we wanted to make another ‘solutions style’ film around agriculture. The FVC with their mission of creating sustainable food systems while strengthening rural communities and offering purpose, opportunity and healing to returning vets provided us the inspiration. We decided to focus on women vets because they are an often overlooked and underappreciated segment of society.
For more information about the film and its screening dates, please look over its website. This promises to be a film that’s not to be missed.
I saw this many years ago in Portland. Watching again today, it is as if it were yesterday. It made a big impression on me.