By Chrissy Iley
It’s that time of year where various movies, documentaries and songwriters are all vying for inclusion in Awards season. It’s the time of year when surprise invites come. Usually, I’m not a fan of the surprise invite but when I was offered to watch the documentary Served Like A Girl with the song Dancing Through The Wreckage written by Linda Perry and Pat Benatar and performed by Pat Benatar, I was yes without hesitation. My friend Kevin is a huge Pat Benatar fan. Pat Benatar was the first concert he ever went to. He knows all the words to Love is a Battlefield and at the risk of him singing them to her at the reception, we went along together. It was held in Estrella Screening Rooms, the screening room adjacent to the Joni Mitchell themed restaurant of the same name.
The screening was presented by Juliette Lewis and was about women who have served in the military, were high ranking officers with tours of Iraq and Afghanistan who have a difficult transition back to civilian life. These women are struggling with PTSD, broken families, military sexual abuse and as one Lieutenant put it how could she be an officer for her country and now homeless, living in her car and able to claim only $300 a month in food stamps for her and her children?
This is a documentary that will make you laugh and make you cry. Elegantly directed by Lysa Helsov it’s loosely based on Miss Veteran America competition held in Las Vegas. The women use the competition to recover parts of themselves and the identity they lost in the war. But it’s not really about the competition. It’s about women and their strength and their vulnerability. It follows several remarkable stories including a tank driver in Iraq who loved shoes. The tank was blown up, her fellow soldiers died, she lost her legs – but with great style, she asked for her prosthetic feet to be made in a size 9 (UK 6) rather than their previous size 11 (UK 8) because she just couldn’t get good shoes to fit. Her aim is to present at the Ms Veteran America pageant wearing sparkly high heeled shoes. I challenge anyone not to shed a tear.
I love documentaries that either tell me more about something I’m already fascinated with or tell me something that I had no clue about and can become educated by and then fascinated with. Who knew that there were all kinds of rehab programs for male veterans but none for female? In a week where it’s all about Oprah 2020 and women speaking their truths and the abusers #timeisup, this is a perfect movie.
Linda Perry was there in a cowboy hat which gave her height and so many tattoos it was hard to see flesh and Pat Benatar. Who knew Pat Benatar was so tiny? She looked age appropriate rock n roll in a leather jacket and leggings and a growing out pixie crop. She said she cried when she first got asked to work on this song. She sings it to make other people cry and of course, Kevin told her she was the first concert he ever went to and graciously she didn’t cry at that.
Watch the trailer here…