What do you think the veterans you worked with took out of the film?
The process of climbing a mountain is an analog, a non-destructive analog, to war or at least being the military and having a mission. You’re setting out to achieve a difficult goal and so you form that same kind of community. You’ve got a clearly defined mission. Everything is pared down to what really matters in that moment. It’s similar to a combat mission in that sense. By taking veterans on a climb, you’re able to create an analog for what might be a combat mission and for that moment they are feeling a lot of the similar emotions and feelings, but in a non-destructive way.
The benefit of it is that they can recapture all of the pieces that they might have gotten in combat, but yet have a chance to look at them differently. It does a lot of good in that it is so similar, yet in a way that allows them to look at from another perspective. Sometimes you don’t want to open up some of these painful parts of the mind and really talk about them, but some of them can be really beneficial. Doing it in combination with the climb, you’re sort of strengthening your own resolve and providing a chance to feel better about it. To feel like they are not alone in the face of having to come back from war and realizing that things can get better. That’s the most important thing.
Veteran Steve Baskis overcame physical challenges to reach the summit of Mt. Lobuche. Photo courtesy of Serac Adventure Films
Seeing the film afterwards and the response of the veterans that were involved in the film has been great. First and foremost, they didn’t want us to get it wrong, because there are already so many misconceptions and misunderstandings. The film doesn’t change the truth of things and tells the truth in a very simple way and allows people to tell their story.
Every process of the film did benefit the veterans involved in it. Part of it was that over time, and this is something a lot of people may not understand, is that when you come home and things are so rough and they feel misunderstood by their family, society in general, and even in their own understanding of themselves, things get better. You can connect with community and the more that you can do things like climbing mountains or just getting out into the wilderness and feeling alive and reconnecting with who you are, things get better. Any of those activities that you can do, they help that process. The worst thing to do is to isolate yourself and stay at home and not engage in you own reentry into society. The film did all those things for the veterans involved in it and also allows us to see it as a wide audience.
Other veterans will see the film and hopefully some ‘ah ha’ moments will happen, where they will say: ‘OK, this is what I’m experiencing as well, and I’m seeing how someone else is getting through it, so not only am I not alone, but there is hope for coming out of this and feeling better.’
During the film the veterans seemed to open up little by little until by the time you are on the summit of Mount Lobuche their stories are pretty developed. Was that your intention or just how the film developed?
Both actually. We edited the film after everything had happened so we were making conscious choices about where to reveal pieces of character. It works the same for an audience. At first an audience is sitting down in their chair and thet’re not completely trusting the process. They want to believe in the movie, but especially with a documentary it can be a challenge. It’s like getting to know someone. You don’t get into the deep stuff right away, because that can be really awkward, so you start out and get to know somebody a little bit. Steve [Baskis] for example, is blind. You can’t hide that fact.
Someone with PTSD or TBI [traumatic brain injury], you need to spend a little more time with them before you start to realize that the injury is as profound as an amputation or blindness, it’s just not visible. It’s not obvious right on the surface, but after awhile you realize there is a person who has a big heart and really cares and wants to do well, but is struggling with the functioning of their own brain – remembering things from one day to the next or having emotional reactions to things that really don’t work and are not appropriate. That’s the structure of the story, to not jump in too fast.
Aaron “Ike” Isaacson soaks up the sunlight as he approaches the summit of Mt. Lobuche. His emotional story is told in High Ground. Photo courtesy of Serac Adventure Films
To let these things unfold and then go deeper and deeper. I know one I really found [compelling] was Ike’s [Aaron “Ike” Isaacon]. He seems like a really stoic guy and really strong and capable, and I know it hit me during the film. I don’t know what it was, but he did a good job covering up or hiding what was going on with him. I never knew it until late into the filmmaking process when we did a final interview and it came out that he was suffering with severe survivor’s guilt. It’s a really emotional moment in the film, because he just tells how it feels to have survivor’s guilt. It’s a very profound thing, because you realize someone is struggling with why they are alive and all of the things that go with that. You can’t just jump into something like that. You have to get to know someone enough that you are willing to talk to them and willing to listen. In that moment it is well into the film and toward the end when he really tells that story in such an emotional way. You’re kind of left with a feeling that this is tragedy and it’s impossible to deal with, because he lost people and he feels responsible for it. It takes a long time and a lot of effort to finally bring him around to realizing that it wasn’t his fault and he needs to go on.
What lessons or insights do you want the audience to come away with?
First of all, I would like them to see that these are people. I think it’s very easy for human beings to create stereotypes about who someone might be and they might do that with veterans, and there aren’t enough around for them to get it. In this story you get to know several people and they are very human. They could be your sister or your neighbor or your son. When you see the film, you see how human they really are and you get to know them. It’s a very effective way to show who a veteran is in an hour and a half. For the general audience, hopefully enough of them will see it to start talking about it and encourage other people to see it and bridge that gap.