May is National Military Appreciation Month, and this year's GI Film Festival San Diego, will celebrate 10 years of honoring military service through film.
This year’s lineup features 16 powerful films that will screen over three days from May 7th -9th at the Museum of Photographic Arts at the San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park. The films selected this year showcase stories from WWII, the Vietnam War, the Global War on Terror, the fall of Afghanistan, and training in peacetime. Themes also include deported veterans, post-traumatic stress, the impact of service on families, spouses and children, as well as mental health. Every year, the GI Film Festival San Diego also showcases films by military service members on non-military themes, and this year’s selection includes films on vampires, LGBTQIA+ stories, and mental health within the Pacific Islander community.
Jodi Cilley, a longtime member of the GI Film Festival San Diego advisory committee, discusses this event.