Debt of Honor - Film Outreach & Engagement Plan

FAIN: GA-233978-15

Public Broadcasting Service (Arlington, VA 22202-3784)
Ron Paul Pierce (Project Director: June 2015 to May 2017)

PBS and the PBS Stories of Service initiative, in association with Steeplechase Films, are seeking $300,000 in funding to support a major nationwide outreach and public engagement initiative this fall, coordinated with the premier national PBS broadcast of Debt of Honor: Disabled Veterans in American History on November 10, 2015, Veterans Day eve.

The centerpiece of this public outreach and engagement initiative will be free prominent public events, held across the United States, in 10 major cities and 20 smaller cities, in the weeks leading up to the PBS broadcast. These outreach events will be planned and implemented in a partnership that will include PBS, WETA, the Department of Veterans Affairs, selected local veterans organizations, and local public television stations around the country. The project director for the outreach initiative is Ron P. Pierce, Senior Director/Veterans Initiatives for PBS. A communications specialist contracted by PBS, in consultation with the filmmakers and PBS, will help local communities identify appropriate humanities scholars in their region to be included on the panel discussions.

Debt of Honor examines the way in which the American government and society as a whole have regarded disabled veterans throughout history, beginning in the aftermath of the Revolutionary War through today’s continuing conflicts in the Middle East. The film combines personal stories as told by distinguished disabled veterans, with deep history as narrated by leading scholars in the fields of disability studies, history and psychology, to palpably illustrate the human cost of war and the enormous sacrifices of military service.