In order to know the pain of faced by military families, you need to know them intimately, according to filmmaker Edet Belzburg.

Question: Do most Americans appreciate the hardships faced by military families?

Edet Belzburg:  I think until you, yourself, are experiencing, it’s very difficult. You know, it’s very difficult, and it’s one of the reasons, again, why I made that film. But we should all have that connection to the soldiers who are serving that every family member has. If we did, maybe certain things would be very different. But I think it’s very difficult to-- when I was in Houma, it, you know, every time I would go to Houma, it was as if I was, you know, in a country at war. You know, everyone was speaking about the war. Everybody had a family member or they knew someone who was serving or had been killed. And the impact was significant there. When I’d come back home, you know, it was completely different environment. So I think it’s very difficult to know what a family feels until you’re actually-- people can empathize and understand conceptually. But emotionally I think it’s very difficult to feel that pain unless you actually know someone intimately.

Recorded on: 07/16/2008