On Patrol

In the middle of the new National Geographic documentary Life In A Day, a young woman gets ready for a date. She showers, and dresses –all the things that are expected, but then the date takes an unexpected turn. She turns on the computer and logs into Skype. From there, this internet date takes another surprise jog. Her husband appears. He’s wearing an Army uniform, and he’s in Afghanistan.

Army Captain Phil Steenstra and wife, Stephanie. Courtesy photoCaptain Phil Steenstra and his wife Stephanie submitted this clip of the virtual date to You Tube’s challenge to film a portion of their day to its Life In A Day project.  Theirs was one of 80,000 clips chosen to insert into a montage of clips that make up the ambitious full-length documentary film, now being shown in theaters nationwide. The film, which premiered at Sundance Film Festival, chronicles July 24, 2010. It’s composed of footage from video bloggers from Australia to Zambia. Life In A Day is a rich collection of sounds, thoughts, and images: many are unforgettable. The Steenstra’s footage is cut in with that of other footage submitted by an Afghan filmmaker living in Kabul.

The striking back and forth –images of the their date interspersed with Afghan children doing Karate and a narrative from the filmmaker who says he sees hope in his country, as he walks the streets of Kabul to show everyone it’s not as dangerous as others make it out to be, is one of the richest montages in the film.

Life In A Day editor Joe Walker, whose job it was to oversee the entire editing process of 4,500 hours of footage said while he and director Kevin MacDonald knew the war was unpopular, they also felt it was important to include it. It was, after all, life in a day. The typical footage submitted by troops were scenes of a “lunar landscape,” miles of rock in a treeless plain, or soldiers doing laundry.  While they chose some of the footage of soldiers joking around, Walker and MacDonald decided to give a more intimate and unexpected look at war.

“It was one of the most worked over sequences of the film,” said Walker, in an interview from his San Francisco hotel.  “It’s one of the proudest moments, because it was unexpected. But I have to tell you, there was one twinge of regret. We weren’t able to use a segment sent of a big major crossing in Kabul. It’s one shot  of a road --very wide, bicycles going here and there, lorries and trucks going off in different directions, and then there’s a sound of a siren and everyone clears and waits. Then a huge convey of American tanks goes past for over a minute and then it passes. Everyone goes back onto the road, life continues. It was hugely poetic statement about Afghanistan, because you think of how many people have trod on that earth trying to control things, and then they move away and life returns back to normal.”

For Steenstra and her husband, the routine of a date was as normal as they could try for during his year-long deployment. “It was really all we could do, and it really epitomized what our interaction was during that time,” said Phil from their home in Ft. Campbell, Kentucky.

Stephanie agreed. “A military spouse is a normal person every day, except for those few precious moments they get to spend on the phone with their loved one. I wanted to show the world what it is like having someone so far away for so long,” she said. For her husband, the time spent with her online was a welcome departure during his time in theater. “It's one of the ways I could unwind from the stress of the day and relax for a few precious minutes with my wife,” he said.

The sequence starts with her getting ready for the date. It’s quite elaborate, drying her hair, choosing an outfit, pinning a flower in her hair. Her husband smiles when he sees her. “Did you dress up again?” he asks looking at her on his screen.

“I planned a lot for these dates because they meant so much to me. It was a chance for me to not only hear his voice, but to actually see him move, see his smile, and watch him laugh. In a few other dates, I would actually have him stand up and spin so that I could see that he was intact and had no injuries! I know, it is funny now, but then it was a comfort to me. I wanted to get dressed up for him because I wanted to show him that I was doing well and still looking good. Had to give him a little eye candy, you know?” said Stephanie, laughing.

They would talk about their days. “The conversations would really be like a regular conversation that you would hold with a loved one over dinner,” said Stephanie.  Although because of missions or internet problems, there were times they would have to go longer periods without hearing from one another. The most heartbreaking of times was when she would miss a call. All she could do was cry, then play his voicemail over and over again, until they could reconnect.

Stephanie credits the other military spouses at Ft. Campbell for helping her get through Phil’s deployment. “You learn to put on a brave face, you learn to deal with what comes your way, and you keep other military spouses as friends. Those girls really got me through this deployment. They lent me a shoulder to cry on when I needed it, they let me vent my frustration, and I was there for them when they needed it as well. They were really the only people that understood what I was going through,” she said.

When asked what they wanted people to take away from their part in the film, the Steenstras were very modest. “There's a very small percentage of people in the Armed Forces these days, and a lot of people forget that there's a lot of brave men a women fighting on their behalf. I think seeing the hardship that all military families go through would make it more meaningful and help the general population understand just a little more why being a military spouse is the hardest job in the world,” said Phil.

The film is an emotional experience for the viewer. Life In A Day is an exercise in observation, and being reminded not to be very mindful and not take anything for granted. As Joe Walker said, “There’s something very intimate about glimpsing all of these personal things, even if it’s a just a girl’s back, sitting in a field, there’s something wonderfully intensely and human about seeing all these different people, almost as if there’s one soul in many, many different bodies.”  One military family, the Steenstras were fortunate to have been added to this memorable montage of scenes from one day in July 2010.

Life In A Day is in selected theaters now.