A new independent film by Westlake documentarians Cheryl and Pat Fries has been selected for screening in this year’s GI Film Festival.

 

“A Touch of Home: The Vietnam War’s Red Cross Girl,” will screen at the festival May 15 at the Carnegie Institution of Washington in Washington, D.C.  

The GI Film Festival is the first film festival in the nation to exclusively celebrate the successes and sacrifices of the American military through the medium of film.

“A Touch of Home” tells the story of the unique league of women who served in the Vietnam War as American Red Cross Supplemental Recreations Overseas personnel. Airmobiled to the front lines, the young women traveled in pairs to fire bases, landing zones and field hospitals to boost morale for soldiers fighting the war. The documentary captures their poignant, sometimes funny and always inspiring stories as they look back on a year in their lives that affected them forever.  

“I am delighted that the story of these amazing women will be shared as part of the 2009 GI Film Festival,” director Cheryl Fries said. “It is so very appropriate that the Vietnam Red Cross Girls are finally honored alongside the GIs whom they so nobly served in the combat zone.”  

Fries is a first-time director who collaborated with her husband and business partner, Patrick, on the new film, the third Vietnam War documentary the couple has produced.

During promotion of their award winning “In The Shadow of The Blade,” a pilot flew a war-scarred Huey helicopter, now displayed in the Smithsonian Museum of American History, across the country to tell the stories of veterans and families affected by the war. 

“An Ocean Away: The Donald Matocha Story,” commissioned by Discovery Military Channel, followed, capturing the journey of an American MIA’s families and comrades to bring him home.

The Fries own and operate Arrowhead Films in Austin.

Tickets for the Washington showing of “A Touch of Home” can be purchased through the festival’s Web site at www.gifilmfestival.com.