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Another Day In Paradise
Wednesday, July 18, at 8:30 p.m.
on WKAR-HD and WKAR-23
New Film Explores Struggles of Fathers and Soon-to-be Fathers Serving Aboard a Nuclear Aircraft Carrier.
More than 5,000 sailors live onboard the USS Nimitz, a nuclear aircraft carrier. All have been forced to leave friends, family and loved ones behind for a six-month deployment to the Persian Gulf, during which they’ll face confining quarters, harsh temperatures, extreme work conditions and conflicts over faith and duty. Another Day In Paradise, airing Wednesday, June 18, at 8:30 p.m., focuses on a pilot, Marine and sailor in different phases of fatherhood, and impending fatherhood, as they struggle with family issues while serving their country in the high-stakes, dangerous environment of an aircraft carrier.
The program will be followed by the return of Carrier, which will air each week in the 10 p.m. time period.
Created from the same pool of material as Carrier, Another Day In Paradise is an intimate, verité film about three men — pilot Doug Booher, Marine Randy Brock and ordnanceman Chris Altice — performing disparate but connected roles on the Nimitz, from flying F-18s to maintaining the aircraft to loading bombs. Going deeply into the personal lives of these individuals, this film portrays them dealing with life as fathers and soon-to-be fathers, while also confronting and questioning issues surrounding their work onboard ship and the role of the Navy in a time of war.
“Another Day In Paradise unfolds more like a fiction film,” says director Deborah Dickson, a three-time Academy Award nominee. “The style and form of this film are very different from Carrier. The film focuses on three main individuals whose lives intersect on the flight deck as they go about their daily jobs. But what they don’t realize is that they share another bond: the difficulty of maintaining personal relationships half way across the world. They’re all facing common issues, difficulties and joys in an extraordinary environment, with their personal voyages taking place against the backdrop of the USS Nimitz.”
Lt. Doug Booher is a fighter pilot in the famed “Black Aces” squadron. Described by his commanding officer as “more of a lover, not a fighter,” he is trying to balance his family life with his career, a task made especially difficult by having to leave his wife and newborn baby to go on deployment. Meanwhile, Gunnery Sergeant Randy Brock, a tough-talking Marine who dances salsa to relieve tension, repairs and maintains the planes of the sole Marine squadron, “The Red Devils.” Abandoned at age three by his carnival worker parents, he worries about what kind of father he’ll be to his son, who is born during the deployment. Twenty-one-year-old aviation ordnanceman Chris Altice says that he’d “much rather be at a college … in some fraternity just partying it up,” but instead works on the flight deck, arming the jets that fly into Iraq. Just before departure, he found out that his new girlfriend is pregnant, creating a new set of concerns and hopes for the future.
Filmed between May and November 2005 onboard the USS Nimitz, a ship that is more than three football fields long with a flight deck that spreads across four and a half acres, Another Day In Paradise addresses the themes of love and war, examining what motivates the men and women on board the USS Nimitz. For some, it’s patriotism; for some, it’s each other; and for many, it’s just counting the days until they get home to families and loved ones. Allowing the pilots, sailors and Marines to speak for themselves, the film offers a rare glimpse into the thoughts and lives of the people who are fighting out there for the American people.
Director Deborah Dickson, an Academy Award nominee for Frances Steloff: Memoirs of a Bookseller, Suzanne Farrell: Elusive Muse and Lalee’s Kin, is an independent filmmaker whose Ruthie and Connie: Every Room in the House won more than 12 awards at festivals worldwide, including best documentary at the Seattle Film Festival and the Nashville Film Festival. She also directed “The Education of Gore Vidal,” which premiered at Sundance in 2003 and aired on PBS’ American Masters. Dickson recently produced and directed Witnesses to a Secret War, which recounts the history of the American-CIA covert operation in Laos through first-person stories of the Hmong soldiers and their families who were forced to flee after the Communist takeover in 1975.
published: June 17, 2008
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