''Soldier Girls'' is a 1981 documentary film by

Nick Broomfield Nicholas Broomfield (born 1948) is an English documentary film director. His self-reflective style has been regarded as influential to many later filmmakers. In the early 21st century, he began to use non-actors in scripted works, which he call ...

and Joan Churchill (who were a married couple at the time of the filming), shot in fourteen weeks in Fort Gordon,

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 ...

, about several women training in the US army.

Summary

Under the aggressive Sergeant Abing are several young women, some dedicated to defending their country, others who seem to have been forced into joining by circumstance. Several of these recruits become harder and colder through the course of their basic training at

Fort Gordon Fort Gordon, formerly known as Fort Eisenhower and Camp Gordon, is a United States Army installation established southwest of Augusta, Georgia in October 1941. It is the current home of the United States Army Signal Corps, United States Army Cy ...

Accolades

BAFTA Award for Best Documentary The BAFTA Award for Best Documentary is a film award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) at the British Academy Film Awards. It was formerly known as the Robert Flaherty Documentary Award. In the followi ...

Grand Jury Prize Documentary This is the list of the winners of the Sundance Grand Jury Prize for documentary features since its first inception in 1982. Winners 1980s *1982: '' Soldier Girls'' *1984: '' Style Wars'' *1985: '' Seventeen'' *1986: ''Private Conversations'' *19 ...

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...

In popular culture

Excerpts from the film are used in U2's song "

Seconds The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of ...

" on their third album, ''

War War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

''.Seconds posted on U2's official YouTube channel
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References

External links

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BFI

Official trailer
* {{Sundance Grand Jury Prize Documentary 1981 films Films directed by Nick Broomfield Documentary films about war Documentary films about women in the United States Women in the United States Army American documentary films British documentary films 1981 documentary films 1980s English-language films 1980s American films 1980s British films Sundance Film Festival award–winning films English-language documentary films