A group of filmmakers in San Francisco collected veterans’ stories this year with the hope of helping them heal.
One of those veterans is Bobby Hollinsworth; Hollingsworth lives in Concord, California with his wife and child.
In 1999, he was an emergency medical technician who worked for the fire department and read comic books in his spare time. Then he joined the U.S. Army and was deployed to serve as a crime scene investigator. He served for 10 years.
“When I came back, I mean I couldn’t even pick up my son and have feelings for him,” Hollingsworth said. “It was hard and just being numb all the time, being emotionally detached.”
Hollingsworth’s experience is one that many American families are struggling through as their loved ones transition from war life into the civilian world. Not all of them are able to do so.
Bobby’s situation was complicated, said Dr. Daniel Bernardi, who was his professor at San Francisco State University.
“He was dealing with a 19-year-old who killed himself,” Bernardi said. “His friend did not die in combat,” he said. The teen returned home from war and took his life.
“More veterans have committed suicide than have died in battle,” he said. “The implications are profound.”
Bernardi, an Iraq war veteran, founded a website called the Veteran Documentary Corps in partnership with San Francisco State University's Cinema Department. The site contains a series of short documentaries about the people who power the wars. One of those films features Hollingsworth. The VDC’s mission is to empower veterans to tell their true stories in their own words, without pressure.
Bernardi said he was very fortunate to have been able to produce the films in an academic environment that doesn’t need to answer to corporate investors.
“We can be really truthful and honest,” he said, noting that many people in this country are divorced from the realities of warfare.
“When this country started the war, George Bush told everybody to go shopping,” he said. “There’s a lack of empathy in American people for veterans,” he said; he wants these films to change that.
Hollingsworth agreed to tell his story in the documentary in the hopes that people would see his story and then talk about it.
“It’s hard to come back and act like nothing happened," he said. “Some families go through hard times, think that they’re the only ones. This speaks to all Americans.”
