Thank You For Your Service (Tom Donahue, 2016) USA

Reviewed by Satara Arthaud. Viewed at the Santa Barbara Film Festival 2016.

Thank You For Your Service is a film that everyone who knows about the military should see.  Being a person who personally loves watching documentaries especially one geared towards social justice. I love learning about  an important topic that may or may not be “top secret.”  Tom Donahue, who was nominated for News and Documentary Emmy Award for Outstanding Arts and Culture programming and the director of the film Thank You For Your Service tackles the mental health crisis in the military, an issue that has been kept on the down low for far to long. The film addresses specific solutions to reducing stigma not only within the military but on a much larger cultural/ societal scale. The film takes the viewers on a journey of incredibly resilient veterans who share their very personal experience and struggles and triumphs. As well as interviews from our government and military leaders, mental health professionals, and non-profit leaders.They share the variety effects and the emotional roller-coaster war does to ones mind, body and spirit.

The film is very well structured and you will never be bored. Its the kind of film that makes you look at life a little different. Make sure to have some tissues near by. Like many social justice documentaries it sheds light on an important topic, this documentary is a message to the American people. And its not a message that should be ignored. What I found to be the most important message or what I took away from the film was the lack of mental health support we have for our military troops, not addressing the core issues behind their diagnosis of PTSD and thinking a pill will cure them. The significance of holistic alternatives, communication, and love. We as American people and human beings in general should not be afraid of mental health and that their is a cure. Before and after watching this film instead of analyzing ask yourself what did you see, but more importantly what did you feel?