The 36^th annual Boston Film Festival featured the debut of shorts, feature films, and some fascinating documentaries such as the world premiere of This Hits Home, Me The People, Beyond Zero, and ‘25’ Tony Conigliaro The Documentary, the US Premiere of Memory of Water, as well as the East Coast premieres of Knots:  A Forced Marriage Story, Stro:  The Michael D’Saro Story, and After the Rain on September 24 through September 27.  The festival offered virtual options and live screen opportunities at the Showcase Icon Boston at the Seaport in Boston, MA.   Q and A panels were held with actors, directors, and foremost experts.  Click here for the full schedule.

Director, executive producer, writer, and narrator Christian Taylor explores the complicated road to forgiveness in her moving D-Day documentary, The Girl Who Wore Freedom which made its US Premiere at the Boston Film Festival.  This extraordinary film provides a unique perspective on D-Day on June 6, 1944 through the eyes of a variety of groups associated with D-Day including citizens of Normandy who were children when the bombs dropped.  20,000 French civilians were killed on D-Day.  Taylor narrates this film as an awed spectator and tourist as she invites D-Day survivors to recall their experiences while she demonstrates the paradoxical ways veterans are treated in Normandy than they are in the United States.

The Girl Who Wore Freedom’s co-producer Flo Boucherie is the symbolic Normandy girl that inspired the film’s title.  She has a particular tie to D-Day partly because her parents were D-Day survivors when they were children.  Her mother worked with the veterans, made Flo’s dress, and participated in the D-Day ceremonies. 

Citizens of Normandy, historical representatives, medics, and veterans describe the impact and the dynamic experiences they had from a Normand child’s encounter with an American veteran who inspired him to never start smoking to trading shoes for eggs to harrowing stories of a civilian who got shot and the museum that resulted from it.  It also recalls some of the significant and surprising events that occurred after D-Day and how perspective changes over the years as generations look back. 

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Despite its serious material, the film is not without its lighthearted moments. It is about trauma, heartache, and harrowing loss, but also about liberation, love, friendship, and compassion.  What unfolds is a testament to the power of healing and forgiveness, not lost on anyone who has been at war. 

Watching this film is an eye-opening experience of one of the most harrowing events in world history.  Its emotional complexity may leave some conflicted of what should come out of the atrocities of war. 

The Girl Who Wore Freedom has been released at a pivotal time in the United States and the world with a sorely needed, universal, and thought-provoking message.  It encourages you to reflect inwardly and empathize with one another’s struggles.  The Girl Who Wore Freedom will unexpectedly move you to tears and make you grateful for the experience.

The Girl Who Wore Freedom is currently touring the film festival circuit nationwide.  Click here to see where The Girl Who Wore Freedom will be shown next and here for more about this year’s Boston Film Festival and future updates.