Our Own Private Battlefield
ABOUT THE FILM
“In the World Alone,” by Donarich D., Henrico High Schoo, 2012. Art teacher, Mary Scurlock.
When a soldier comes home from war with PTSD, it affects the entire family. Studies indicate it may even cause secondary PTSD in spouses and children. In the feature documentary work-in-progress, Our Own Private Battlefield, father and daughter artists Tom and Lora Beldon share how the Vietnam War affected their family and how, twenty years later, their art helped bring them back together.
Tom Beldon was a Navy brat and career Marine who served two year-long combat tours in Vietnam, the first year as an infantry platoon leader, the second as a company commander. Lora was three years old when he returned. After years of struggling, Tom and his wife finally divorced. Tom dropped Lora off at college and disappeared without a word to her or her sixteen-year-old brother.
Fifteen years later, Lora mailed an invitation to one of her art shows to Tom's sister, Lora's aunt. On the day of the show, Lora and her mother walked into the back of the gallery.
Tom and Lora Beldon, post-Vietnam.
“The moment that we walk in the back door, my mother looks up to the front door, it was a sunny day, and there’s the silhouette that she recognizes, and she says, “Lora, that’s your dad.” And I look up and I recognize the way that he stands, cause you can’t see anything, it’s just a black silhouette, and I freeze because I didn’t know what to do, and she goes, “Go get him!””
"War Torn Teddy Bear" by Lora Beldon
It took awhile, but Lora and Tom finally reconnected. Lora’s mixed media artwork about her military brat childhood caused Tom to think about his own brat childhood and how it affected him. Tom’s fantastical "world" of hanging sculptures and installation pieces deep in the Michigan woods also began to evolve from a fairytale land (that looked more like a Vietnamese jungle) into an art installation explicitly honoring his experiences as a soldier. For Tom, making art is a joyous, meditative, and intensely private process. He rarely shares his work publicly, and has done so for Brats Without Borders only because it may help other military families.
"Returning to Friendly Pos." Installation Art by Tom Beldon (documentary photography by Patty Carroll)
Our Own Private Battlefield is a story of love, redemption, and the power of art. It is also the first feature documentary about the inter-generational effects of combat PTSD on military children, specifically. But most of all, it is a testament to the fact that, sometimes, it really is never too late to start over again.
The film is in the final stages of production and is expected to be completed in 2020.
INTERVIEW EXCERPTS
Here are excerpts from the first interview with Tom and Lora Beldon, discussing these subjects on-camera together for the very first time.
UPDATE
We are shooting our final interview in 2023 and the film should be complete in 2024. There have been so many wonderful connections that have happened in the past few years. The film should help lots of military families!
DONATIONS
If you would like to make a donation to help support the post-production costs of making this film, please go to our Donation Page. Thank you so much!
