Congratulations to new SPOHPer Michael T. Barry, Jr. (B.A., College of the Holy Cross 2014, M.A. Providence College 2016)! He is a first-year doctoral student in American history and a SPOHP graduate research assistant. Mike works on the Alachua County African American History Project and the St. Augustine African American History Project.
On Saturday August 20th, Michael screened his most recent film, The Universal Soldier: Vietnam as an official selection at the 2016 Nyack Film Festival in Nyack, New York. The film takes a closer look at the lives of Vietnam War veterans from both the American and Vietnamese perspective. Specifically, it explores the more compassionate, shared elements of life at war through the work of artistically gifted veterans. The project utilizes never before seen footage from the war, portions of Vietnamese film, and firsthand accounts from veterans.
The film screened to a full audience and was received positively. In the following question and answer session, the viewers and filmmaker dialogued on themes like: Is war inevitable? Can we put an end to war? What if humans understood conflict without creating enemies or fundamentally different “others” wrongheaded and therefore expendable? What if we could see that soldiers share a universal experience? How do veterans handle these universal experiences and emotions? What can these ideas from Vietnam teach us about other modern wars like Iraq and Afghanistan? Ultimately, the film went on to win the festival’s Best Feature award.