About the Film
Short Synopsis
U.S. military BRATS share intimate memories about their unique childhoods -
growing up on military bases around the world, then struggling to fit into an American
lifestyle with which they have little in common. Narrated and featuring songs by Kris
Kristofferson. Interviews include the late General Norman Schwarzkopf and military brat author Mary
Edwards Wertsch.
Medium Synopsis
It's hard to imagine a military BRAT'S childhood. Moving from base to base
around the world, they are at home everywhere - and nowhere. There are 2 million children
being raised in the military today. An estimated 15 million Americans are former
BRATS. They include singers Pink and Lionel Richie, author Suzanne Collins (of the "Hunger Games"), basketball
star Shaquille O'Neal and Heisman Trophy winner, Robert Griffin III, actors Julianne Moore, Robert Duvall, and Neil
Patrick Harris, and many more.
BRATS is the first cinematic glimpse into a global subculture
whose journey to adulthood is a high-octane mixture of incredible excitement and
enormous pain. Make no mistake - BRATS is not about the U.S. military -
it's about their children, who grow up in a paradox that is idealistic and
authoritarian, privileged and perilous, supportive and stifling - all at the same time.
Their passports say "United States," but they're really citizens of the world.
Singer/songwriter and Air Force brat Kris Kristofferson leads us through the heart of
their experiences, sharing intimate memories with fellow BRATS, including General Norman
Schwarzkopf and author Mary Edwards Wertsch, whose ground-breaking book,
Military Brats: Legacies of Childhood Inside the Fortress, was one of the seminal
inspirations for this film. Their stories reveal the peculiar landscape of their
childhood, the culture that binds them together, and the power it exerts over their
adult lives.
A seven-year work of passion by independent filmmaker Donna Musil, BRATS
features rare archival footage, home movies and private photographs from post-war Japan,
Germany, and Vietnam.
Long Synopsis
BRATS: Our Journey Home is the first feature-length documentary, narrated
by singer/songwriter Kris Kristofferson,
about a hidden American subculture - a lost tribe of at least fifteen
million people from widely diverse backgrounds, raised on military bases around the world,
whose shared experiences have shaped their lives so powerfully, they are forever
different from their fellow Americans.
Using archival film sources,
home movie footage
and provocative first-person
interviews,
including General H. Norman Schwarzkopf,
psychotherapist Stephanie Donaldson-Pressman, West Point sociologist Dr. Morten Ender,
and author Mary Edwards Wertsch, whose ground-breaking book,
Military Brats: Legacies of Childhood Inside the Fortress, was one of the seminal
inspirations for this film, BRATS tells the story of children raised
under a very unique set of circumstances, including:
This unusual combination of experiences has created a cultural
identity so powerful, it crosses all lines of race, gender, age, and class.
Most brats, however, don't even know they belong to a separate subculture
- they just feel "different" somehow, from their fellow Americans.
Then the Internet surfaced, enabling many to reconnect, reunite, and
compare notes.
The similarities they've discovered are astounding
- from seemingly innocuous personality quirks to major values, choices,
expectations about life. Some of these psychological legacies are inspiring,
others bittersweet. But for many, reconnecting with their fellow brats and
recognizing their unique heritage has been the first time they've felt like
they belonged, the first "hometown" they've ever known - each other.
As author and Marine Corps brat
Pat Conroy
says so eloquently in his introduction to Mary Wertsch's book,
Military Brats: Legacies of Childhood Inside the Fortress:
I thought I was singular in all this, one of a kind.
From Mary's book I discover that I speak in the multitongued, deep-throated
voice of my tribe. ...[I]t's a language I was not even aware I spoke...
a secret family I did not know I had. ... Military brats, my lost tribe,
spent their entire youth in service to this country, and no one even knew
we were there.
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