From left: Brenda Threat, executive director of the US Veterans Association of Long Beach; veteran Hope Garcia; Served Like a Girl director Lysa Heslov; and panel-discussion moderator Tasha Hunter during the Dec. 14 screening of the film, which documents a beauty pageant for female veterans, some of whom have experienced homelessness.
Since 2012, Boothe has organized the “Ms. Veteran America” competition from which proceeds raised are given to the homeless population of US women veterans. The message inspired director Lysa Heslov to produce Served Like a Girl and document the stories of contestants who are a part of Boothe’s mission.
Heslov; Brenda Threat, executive director of the US Veterans Association of Long Beach; and Hope Garcia, one of the documented women veterans, participated in a question-and-answer session after a screening of the film on Thursday, Dec. 14 at The Art Theatre.
The film took nearly two and a half years to create, according to Heslov, and is now available on multiple services including iTunes and Vudu.
As a veteran featured in the documentary, Garcia explained her journey.
“It was an experience,” she said. “It opened us up. Some of us were not settled, and [Heslov] got us to open up.”
Twenty-five women were chosen by Boothe to participate in the “Ms. Veteran America” pageant. However, Heslov did not film all 25 stories.
“I picked girls who were the same on camera as off,” Heslov said. “So, those are the girls I chose, and they so happen to have amazing storylines.”
Heslov ended up selecting five women veterans who have served several tours in Iran and Afghanistan to share their experiences to raise awareness of their issues.
During the discussion, Threat described the lack of attention placed on females who have served in the military. She said that, although the Veterans Association of Long Beach serves 700 veterans daily and has a specialized program for female veterans, Los Angeles lacks such services.
“I have learned about a lot of the BS, I will say it, that comes with the legislation,” Threat said. “Criteria is placed on housing a veteran. ‘When somebody is in a motel for a night, they are not homeless. So, we cannot give them services.’ It is a lot of things that prohibit resources that help end the problem of homelessness. […] So, vote, speak up, email your elected officials.”
The panel was then questioned on what the community should do, and Garcia explained the importance of public outreach.
“The biggest opportunity as a civilian or another veteran is sharing it,” Garcia said. “It is going out there, accepting what you have seen and sharing it with other people. We are only a voice. You have to act, and you have to share it. […] It takes multiple people to make this an opportunity. We know that one vote doesn’t matter; it is all the votes that matter. So, we need everyone to act on this.”
Although Garcia’s story was inspiring, it was difficult for Heslov to just sit back and film.
“One of the most difficult times I had during filming was to follow [Garcia] when she was homeless,” Heslov said. “Because, you know, as a woman who cares about other women and cares about human beings, all I wanted to do was save her— help her get a place for her and her kids, help her get shelter. I couldn’t change the story, and I remember that being so difficult. I remember at one point she had everything she owned in her car. […] It broke my heart.”
Additionally, Garcia discussed the normalcy of situations like the ones she faced.
“Couchsurfing,” Garcia said. “As women veterans, we know that that’s a normal thing for us to do, because we are not going to take our children out on the streets with us or sleep in the car. We are going to go to an aunt or an uncle, and we are going to sit there and we are going to be like, ‘Can we use your couch? Can we borrow your beds for a week so we can find some place to stay?’ We can’t be in a men’s homeless shelter. So, what it is, is we need your help to share […] that this is a problem.”
Threat explained that, to help US women veterans like Garcia, the community as a whole can come together.
“Change the story,” Threat said. “Change the support and get behind this film, and use that to put a fire under yourselves and under your elected officials, so that they can take the money that is being designated for whatever our current administration is designating for and put it to use, so that people can be taken care of.”
