For the past eight years, Iraq War Veteran Spouse and filmmaker Elena Miliaresis has had one mission: to tell the story of America's military families. On May 8th, in honor of Military Spouse Appreciation Day, Smiling Sun Productions will release her documentary While Time Stands Still on DVD via MilitaryFamilyDocumentary.com. A film about love, courage, and sacrifice, While Time Stands Still reveals the untold perspective of what it is like to be a family during wartime, and what it takes to recover and reintegrate afterwards.
With the honesty and intimacy of a home movie, Miliaresis shares her own experience as she follows Brandi Albritton and Denneny Cochran, two military wives before, during, and after their husbands' combat deployments. Miliaresis turns the camera on families showing what it takes to survive on the home front while the bullets fly in the warzone. "I felt broken. I could barely get the baby her bottle. The boys were being loud, and I just wanted them to stop. I started thinking horrible thoughts that I don't normally think of like hurting my children and hurting myself," confesses Brandi returning from the crisis center during her third deployment. The mental health issues of family Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Postpartum Depression, and increased suicidal tendencies are so rarely publicly discussed that family members fail to recognize their condition and fall victim to their circumstance. With nearly one hundred interviews, While Time Stands Still tracks the effect of war on Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, Navy, National Guard, and Reserve spouses, mothers, fathers, and children over the course of five years. This unprecedented investigation not only exposes the trauma inflicted on families, but also shows the grit and perseverance it takes to heal from these wounds of war. The journey to healing can be a long one, yet, as the families in While Time Stands Still demonstrate, the power of the human spirit can transform in the darkest of times into hope and light. |
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