PBS and GI Film Festival announce at Newsmaker a partnership to bridge the military-civilian divide

Local PBS stations will host live events in 2019 that offer military-themed content from the GI Film Festival (GIFF) in a new partnership to build public understanding of the military experience and bridge the military-civilian divide, the two groups announced Thursday at a National Press Club Headliners Newsmaker event.

The PBS events, part of the network’s “Stories of Service” initiative, are aimed at alleviating a divide that according to the Defense Dept. is expanding and poses a threat to the viability and sustainability of the current all-volunteer force.

Less than half of one percent of the U.S. population now serves on active duty, noted Club President Andrea Edney in introducing a panel of GIFF and PBS executives who discussed the joint initiative. Public “misconceptions” over what military service is all about are behind the push to broaden exposure to military life through films and television, she said.

“We wanted to bring the military and civilian populations together,” said Brandon Millett who co-founded GIFF in Washington, DC, with Army veteran Laura Law-Millett, his spouse. “We’re an independent film festival” with partners and many supporters, he said “but we stay independent.”

GIFF is currently premiering “Going to War” and “Solo: A Star Wars Story” during its two-day special event in Washington and also is hosting its annual Congressional reception. The organization represents every film genre, service branch and issue facing the military community, including post-traumatic stress, homelessness, unemployment and veteran suicide,” according to the partners’ joint news release.

Another panelist, Tom Karlo, general manager of local public media station KPBS in San Diego, touted his city as home to seven military bases, 10,000 active military and the nation’s third largest population of military veterans. KPBS will present GIFF’s flagship festival in San Diego Sept. 25-30, and offer its expertise to other PBS stations to use in their communities.

Karlo noted his station, the first station to which GIFF expanded in 2015 after its 2007 start, has long had an interest in all veterans --"from the disabled to the deported.”

“We wanted to change the conversation with respect to the portrayal of veterans,” he said. That’s why, he explained, KPBS reached out to GIFF in Washington, which led to the San Diego festivals.

Jim Dunford, PBS’s senior vice president for programming and operations, emphasized PBS’s role “as the nation’s story-teller,” and, in this new partnership, “through the authentic story-telling of veterans.”

When asked about measuring the impact of these shows beyond counting viewers, Dunford suggested looking at the number of corporate partners willing to help PBS support military festivals. Added Millett: “We’ve seen a major increase in military films -- we try to get more military veterans into the [film] industry.”

Film submissions increase 10 percent to 15 percent annually, Millett said, stressing the need to address “the image of returning veterans” as competent and strong and to show films about employed veterans. Telling their stories is a catharsis for veterans, he explained, and “when audiences hear the vets’ stories, it’s a catharsis for them too.”

Actor Wendell Pierce, star of the new Amazon “Jack Ryan” series and expected to be one of the panelists, was unable to leave his film set for the Newsmaker. Paula A. Kerger, PBS president and CEO, also could not attend.