Donna Musil
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Donna Lynn Musil (born April 15, 1960) is an American documentary filmmaker, writer, and activist exploring the
subculture A subculture is a group of people within a culture, cultural society that differentiates itself from the values of the conservative, standard or dominant culture to which it belongs, often maintaining some of its founding principles. Subcultures ...
of U.S. military brats. She wrote and directed the 2006 documentary ''Brats: Our Journey Home'',Musil, Donna; Goodwin, Beth; Kristofferson, Kris. ''Brats: Our Journey Home''. Brats Without Borders, 2006. a film about growing up the child of a military family and the effect it has on that child's adult life. She is also the founder of Brats Without Borders, a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing awareness, celebration, and support for
military brat A military brat (colloquial or military slang) is a child of serving or retired military personnel. Military brats are associated with a unique subcultureDavid C. Pollock, Ruth E. van Reken. ''Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds'', Revise ...
s and other third culture children."Brats without Borders", Federal 501c3 number: #58-2486120, http://www.bratsourjourneyhome.com/nonprofit.htm The feature-length
documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...
is narrated by singer-songwriter
Kris Kristofferson Kristoffer Kristofferson (June 22, 1936 – September 28, 2024) was an American singer, songwriter, and actor. He was a pioneering figure in the outlaw country movement of the 1970s, moving away from the polished Nashville sound and toward a m ...
and features interviews with General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, author Mary Edwards Wertsch, psychotherapist Stephanie Donaldson Pressman, and numerous other adult brats, aged 20 to 70. The film has been screened in over 100 locations around the United States, and has to date been screened at 21 film festivals, winning five awards.List of Film Awards for ''Brats: Our Journey Home''
/ref> Musil is also a
journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...
and attorney by trade. An expert in the field of
military brat A military brat (colloquial or military slang) is a child of serving or retired military personnel. Military brats are associated with a unique subcultureDavid C. Pollock, Ruth E. van Reken. ''Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds'', Revise ...
studies, Musil conducts extensive Q&A sessions after screenings of her film and speaks on the topic with a variety of audiences, including current and adult brats, military, educational, corporate, and mental health care professionals.


Early life

Musil was born into a career Army family on April 15, 1960. By the time she was eight, her father, Ltc. Louis F. Musil (deceased), a JAG lawyer and judge, had been away two years of her life, in the Vietnam War. Musil grew up in the very mobile lifestyle of an Army brat, moving frequently and never having a hometown. By the time she was sixteen, Musil had moved twelve times and lived on three different continents, including living in
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...
,
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
,
North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...
,
Korea Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...
,
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
,
Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...
, and
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
."How Can Third Culture Kids Belong? Brats: Our Journey Home"
interview with Donna Musil
Musil attended three different high schools, her Ninth grade was spent at Taegu American High School in Taegu, Korea - her tenth grade at Ft. Knox, Kentucky - and after her father died of cancer two months after her 16th birthday, she finished her third and final year of high school at Columbus High School in Columbus, Georgia (graduating early). She graduated from the University of Georgia with an A.B. in Journalism in 1981 and a Juris Doctor degree in 1985, and is a member of the State Bar of Georgia.


Career

Musil's career has included journalism, law, documentary film-making, and writing. She worked as an on-air radio news director, an attorney with the
AFL-CIO The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) is a national trade union center that is the largest federation of unions in the United States. It is made up of 61 national and international unions, together r ...
and the
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) is a trade union, labor union that represents approximately 820,000 workers and retirees in the electricity, electrical industry in the United States, Canada, Guam, Panama, Puerto Rico, an ...
, and an executive assistant with
Sony Pictures Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment studio conglomerate that produces, acquires, and distributes filmed entertainment (theatrical motion pictures, television programs, and rec ...
and
Castle Rock Entertainment Castle Rock Entertainment is an American independent film and television production company founded in 1987 by Martin Shafer, director Rob Reiner, Andrew Scheinman, Glenn Padnick (September 8, 1947 – February 27, 2025) and Alan Horn. Histo ...
, before pursuing a full-time independent writing and
filmmaking Filmmaking or film production is the process by which a Film, motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, beginning with an initial story, idea, or commission. Production then continues through screen ...
career in 1994. She has served on the Board of Directors for Women in Film/Atlanta, and has won writer's fellowships to the Hambidge Center in Georgia, Fundacion Valparaiso in Spain, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation in
Taos, New Mexico Taos () is a town in Taos County, New Mexico, Taos County, in the north-central region of New Mexico in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Initially founded in 1615, it was intermittently occupied until its formal establishment in 1795 by Santa Fe ...
, and Centrum Arts in
Port Townsend, Washington Port Townsend is a city on the Quimper Peninsula in Jefferson County, Washington, United States. The population was 10,148 at the 2020 United States Census. It is the county seat and only incorporated city of Jefferson County. In addition ...
. The Executive Director of the nonprofit organization Brats Without Borders, Musil currently lives in middle Georgia.


''Brats: Our Journey Home''

''Brats: Our Journey Home'' is a documentary on the
subculture A subculture is a group of people within a culture, cultural society that differentiates itself from the values of the conservative, standard or dominant culture to which it belongs, often maintaining some of its founding principles. Subcultures ...
of American military brats.


Conceptualization

The idea for ''Brats: Our Journey Home'' took root during Musil's impromptu reunion with her Taegu American High School friends in Washington, DC in 1997. She then read all of the research available at the time, including Mary Edwards Wertsch's groundbreaking book ''Military Brats: Legacies of Childhood Inside the Fortress'', and Stephanie Donaldson Pressman's ''The Narcissistic Family'', which Musil reports, opened her eyes as to "why I was the way I was." Over the next 5 years, Musil conducted her own independent research, interviewing over 500 military brats of all ages, races, religions, and branches of service, along with other experts in the field, including Wertsch and Pressman.


Reception

The documentary premiered at the Rhode Island International Film Festival in August 2006. It has to date been invited to 21 film festivals, winning five film awards. It continues to be shown in and near American and Canadian military communities in the U.S, Canada, and also at many locations on or near U.S. military bases overseas.Musil, Donna (2006). ''BRATS: Our Journey Home'', Brats Without Borders, Inc. Musil has announced that The Military Channel is planning to air the documentary in the near future.


Brats Without Borders

Musil is also the founder of Brats Without Borders, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting awareness of the lives, culture, issues, and needs of current and former military brats. In 2008, Brats Without Borders launched the "BRATS Support Network & Discussion Forum", an on-line forum for brats and
third culture kid Third culture kids (TCK) or third culture individuals (TCI) are people who were raised in a different culture than their parents, for a large part or the entirety of their childhood and adolescence. They typically are exposed to a greater volume an ...
s of all ages. Musil continues to amass data on the effects of growing up military.


See also

* Camp follower * Military sociology


References


External links

*
BRATS: Our Journey Home
' *
Brats Without Borders
' {{DEFAULTSORT:Musil, Donna 1960 births American documentary filmmakers American women journalists Georgia (U.S. state) lawyers Living people Writers from Denver University of Georgia alumni University of Georgia School of Law alumni Film directors from Colorado American women documentary filmmakers American people of Czech descent 21st-century American women