Makers of the documentary “Ground Operations: Battlefields to Farm Fields” will screen and discuss the film in venues across the North Olympic Peninsula this week.
In the documentary, a group of young American soldiers comes home to start new lives.
The men and women, survivors of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, become farmers and ranchers of organic crops and pasture-raised livestock.
Sgt. Adam Burke, nearly killed by a mortar in Iraq, returns to start the Veterans Farm, an organic blueberry operation where disabled vets like himself work.
“Ground Operations” won the “Big Cheese” award for community-building during last September’s Port Townsend Film Festival.
Now, it is back on the Peninsula for four more screenings — all free to the public.
Show times and places are:
■ 7 p.m. Monday in the Port Townsend High School auditorium, 1500 Van Ness St.
■ 7 p.m. Wednesday at the American Legion Hall, 209 Monroe St. in downtown Port Townsend.
■ 6 p.m. Thursday in Red Cedar Hall at the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribal Center, 1033 Old Blyn Highway in Blyn.
■ 7 p.m. Friday in the Little Theater at Peninsula College, 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd. in Port Angeles.
At all four showings, filmmakers Dulanie Ellis and Ray Singer will stay after for a panel discussion with members of the local farming and veterans community.
Janette Force, the Port Townsend Film Festival’s executive director, is delighted to have the pair in town again.
The “Ground Operations” message, she said, is plain: “America needs farmers, and veterans want the job.”
The documentary contains the veterans’ stories: why they joined the military, how the war changed them, how the return to civilian life has been, how they struggled to find a positive way forward.
“Paradoxically, our veterans are looking for new, challenging careers at the same time that the USDA is calling for 1 million new farmers and ranchers in the next 10 years to replace the 50 percent of American farmers who are at retirement age,” the “Ground Operations” filmmakers write on their website, www.groundoperations.net.
For more information about these screenings and other cinematic activities, visit www.ptfilmfest.com or phone the festival office at 360-379-1333.
