By Dane Anderson, Staff Writer

The Arrowhead Films’ documentary about American women who served in the Vietnam War, “A Touch of Home: The Vietnam War’s Red Cross Girls,” recently won as the Best Short Documentary in the 2009 GI Film Festival in Washington, DC. West Lake Hills filmmakers Cheryl and Patrick Fries own Arrowhead Films. 

The documentary captures the stories of young college-educated women who served in the Vietnam War with the American    Red Cross Supplemental Recreation Overseas program. Known as “Donut Dollies” during World War II, the Vietnam Red Cross Girls traveled to the front lines of the war to boost morale for American troops. 

Cheryl Fries, who directed “A Touch of Home” said it was exciting for a woman filmmaker to win the award for a women’s history documentary. 

“American women’s history is still largely untold,” Fries said. “That I’ve had the opportunity to document a chapter of it is a great privilege.”

“A Touch of Home” screened as part of the GIFF’s Armed Forces Week events at the Carnegie Institute in Washington D.C. on May 15.

The film festival celebrates the successes and sacrifices of the American military through the medium of film.  

“It’s a tremendous thrill to know that I’ve helped these women, who put themselves in harm’s way in the middle of a war, get this long overdue recognition of their service,” Fries said.