Three documentary films tell stories of struggle and healing in the military.

The GI Josie Film Festival is a bit of a misnomer. GI Josie is a Castroville-based startup nonprofit that pairs women soldiers who have suffered trauma with alternative therapies. It was founded by Laurabeth Messimer in response to the sexual harassment her daughter endured while in the Navy.

But the films themselves are a showcase of three military documentaries created by New York City-based filmmaker and NYU Journalism Institute professor and director Marcia Rock.

The shared theme is women in the military and the struggles they face within and without – a subject earning greater attention as more women enter combat roles and the military acknowledges systemic problems of sexual harassment and rape. The latter has its own acronym: MST, or military sexual trauma, which can lead to or exacerbate PTSD.

The three films that will screen include two shorts. Warriors Return is a 27-minute documentary about Dine´ warriors, Navajos who served in the U.S. military, from World War II code talkers to special forces in Vietnam to those who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. One Navajo veteran likens the rock formations of Canyon de Chelly in Apache County, Arizona, to those on Iwo Jima. Upon their return home they contend with psychological damage, unemployment, lack of housing and alcohol abuse, but get help from women in their community, as well as traditional Native American medicines and Western therapy.

Soldiers Period is a raw, funny, five-minute “essay” from women combat soldiers responding to male soldiers’ aversion to fighting alongside women because of their menstrual cycles. The women are defiant, sassy, talking to the camera about how in some cultures a woman is considered the most powerful during her period, and how a tampon can be used to plug a bullet wound. Their responses rework the phonetics of “Soldier’s Period” into “Soldiers. Period.”

The main feature, 55 minutes long, is the 2005 documentary Service: When Women Come Marching Home, which aired on PBS. It follows several women soldiers as they transition from war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan back into civilian life in the U.S., dealing with family, prosthetic legs, homelessness, bureaucracy, detachment and therapy.

Lashonna Perry helped build armored vehicles as part of the motor pool in Iraq, but her family doesn’t seem to understand her when she returns. Sue Downes was the first female double-leg amputee of the war in Afghanistan when her humvee was blown up by an IED. Here is an exchange between the two that highlights the isolation that forms a type of postwar sisterhood.

Sue: I think a dog would benefit you because you’re waking up every day… you feel like you have no purpose, right?

Lashonna: I never wanted to kill myself, I just wanted to wake up dead. If that makes sense.

Sue: I know, I know.

Lashonna: You wake up and you’re like, “Agh, why did you [God] wake me up?”

Sue: My kids, if it wasn’t for them, I can promise you I would not be here.

“[Co-producer Patricia Lee Stotter] and I didn’t want to do a single-issue film,” Rock says. “We wanted to make sure everyone knew about the contributions and valor of women veterans. We try to unpack PTSD, talk about how to heal, and that was very important for us, not to just throw it out and trigger people with the problems.”

She says that Veterans Affairs hospitals are trying to adapt to treating women soldiers. They used to have women who had suffered military sexual trauma sit in waiting rooms full of male soldiers; many of the women would experience anxiety and leave before getting treatment. There were few gynecologists, women doctors, or male doctors who were experienced treating women. There was a preponderance of medications instead of talk therapy, and privacy and sensitivity issues were not fully understood.

“These are starting to be addressed at larger VAs,” Rock says. “MST is still a big issue. The awareness of it has changed. What can I say? Things are slow. It’s all about the chain of command.”

Local military representatives will be at the screening. A panel including Breanna Edwards (Navy), Kelly Potter (Army), Monisha Rios (Veterans for Peace) and others will convene. Filmmaker Rock will be there too. The Veterans Transition Center, which helps homeless veterans and their families, will transport veterans to the screening who cannot afford to go otherwise.

Events like this are a sign of the cultural change that needs to happen to fully restore the honor of military service to everyone.

GI JOSIE FILM FESTIVAL is 2pm Saturday, Aug. 11, at Middlebury Institute of International Studies, Irvine Auditorium, 499 Pierce St., Monterey. Free; VIP access to post-reception limited to 75. 632-9029, lb@gijosie.org