Film Screening: Voices in Wartime

Voices in Wartime is an extraordinary film about the convergence of poetry and war, a visceral, eloquent work of word and image. It's a privilege to be able to screen this picture and to work with Ed Tick, a remarkable healer and writer, and I invite everyone to join us on 22 April. Here is the press release about the screening and a trailer; an interview with executive producer Andrew Himes will follow next week. Blessings, Tim

The ancient convergence of poetry and war is the subject of the documentary Voices in Wartime, to be screened for one performance only at 4 p.m., April 22, at the Opalka Gallery, Sage College of Albany. Following the film, Dr. Edward Tick of Soldier’s Heart will lead a discussion about poetry as witness and healing force to the legacy of warfare. The event is sponsored by the Center for Documentary Arts at The Sage Colleges and the Opalka Gallery. It is opened to the public.

The screening will be held in the Opalka Gallery theater, on the campus of the Sage College of Albany, 140 New Scotland Road, Albany. Admission is $5. Parking on campus is free.

Voices in Wartime is a feature-length documentary produced by Seattle filmmaker and author Andrew Himes. The film, directed by Rick King, etches the experience of war through the images and words of poets both world-famous and unknown. Soldiers, journalists, historians, and battle experts interviewed in Voices in Wartime add diverse perspectives on war’s effects on combatants and civilians alike. The film includes poets from many countries, from the U.S. and Great Britain to Colombia, Nigeria, Iraq and India.

Voices in Wartime explores the long, complex relationship between poetry and war, beginning in ancient Babylonia and the fields of Troy, through the great conflicts of the twentieth century, right up to America’s war on terror. The stirring words of great poets—Homer, Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes, Walt Whitman and Shoda Shinoe of Hiroshima—mingle with the voices of a Vietnam veteran, a battlefield doctor, a survivor of war-torn Baghdad, even a witness to the devastating civil war in Biafra. The poems penetrate and capture the horror, valor, and sacrifice of warriors and those caught up in war’s vortex. The terrible beauty of the poetry distills the grim realities and diverse emotions of war, allowing access to greater truths and more powerful insights.

Following the film, psychoanalyst and poet Edward Tick, Ph. D., will lead an audience discussion about the film and speak about the healing power of poetry. Dr. Tick is co-founder of Soldier's Heart, a not-for-profit healing and advocacy center in Troy, New York that provides a unique and comprehensive model to address the emotional, moral, and spiritual wounds of veterans, their families, and communities. His psychotherapy practice has specialized in veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) since 1979. His pioneering study, War and the Soul, identifies PTSD as not just a psychological condition but a “loss of the soul,” and reanimates ancient and cross-cultural warrior traditions to reveal paths for successful healing. The book is used by the Department of Defense to treat soldiers.

Dr. Tick is also the author of The Golden Tortoise: Journeys in Viet Nam, a poetry collection inspired by numerous trips to that country with Vietnam veterans to heal the wounds of the war.

A sales table will be on site for cash and check sales to support Soldier’s Heart.

The screening and discussion are a presentation of the Opalka Gallery and the Center for Documentary Arts, and organized by CDA founding director Timothy Cahill. The Center for Documentary Arts, hosted by The Sage Colleges, is a not-for-profit cultural organization founded in 2009 to inspire compassion and foster social justice though art of conscience and consciousness.