, a 1985 drama that has Chris Haywood as a Vietnam veteran dealing with Agent Orange exposure.Breaker MorantChief executive Warwick Young sees the festival as an important event for veterans, their families and current defence force members who might be dealing with trauma, adjusting to life changes or just looking for a new start.
“It’s not just about a bunch of veterans watching films together,” he says. “It’s actually bringing everybody in to start conversations.” Young, a filmmaker and actor who served with the Army in Iraq in 2006 and is still a colonel in the Army Reserve, says the festival has another role this year - recruiting veterans for a program called Screen Warriors to fill skills shortages in the film industry.
Sam Worthington plays as a former Special Forces operative who is struggling to cope after losing his wife in Matt Noble’s Transfusion.Working with the AFTRS, it will train veterans to become unit, transport, production and location managers, production accountants and assistant directors.“It’s about finding employment that utilises the skill sets they’ve already got,” Young says.