Hot Docs - Poster Girl

Rating: ****

There have been a lot of movies made about the disenfranchisement of the typical recruiting poster type of soldier in the U.S. Army in the fallout of the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Robynn Murray’s story is not that much different, except she was literally on the poster. The army put her and two of her friends on the cover of their magazine, representing women in combat. But just a year after the photo was taken, Robynn came home injured, with a litany of psychological traumas and a shattered view of herself and her role in Iraq.

But Poster Girl isn’t about government policy (well, kind of), but it is really about how one young woman struggles to put her life back together after having all her perceptions about service collapse under the violent reality of what she saw everyday for a year in Iraq. Robynn struggles to get her veteran’s benefits, as she’s required to jump through red-taped hoops to prove that she is disabled. Robyn’s frustration is palpable and the camera unflinching at capturing the ugly side of suffering post-traumatic stress disorder.

Robynn turns a lot of that frustration into art work. She and other veterans cut up their uniforms and turn them into paper, which is then used to make a variety of pieces like paintings and collages and other media. Robyn creates a mould of her bust, and turns her old army manuals into papier-mâché to make a series of sculptures chronicling her service and recovery. Despite the subject matter, director Sara Nesson finds great positivity in this, the idea that someone can turn their pain around through art, and surely what must be a sense of catharsis turning the tools of war into works of art.

Although its only 32 minutes long, Nesson squeezes almost every once of emotion out of the running time of the film. Scenes where Robyn hits the wall in her room wearing boxing gloves and punching a hole through the drywall is powerful enough for its quiet frustration. But then after looking at the hole in the wall, Robynn starts to break down and cry. It’s a heartbreaking moment, but one that perfectly sums up in visuals the emotional core of the story.

Above all else, one has to admire Robynn Murray for opening herself up to Nesson and her camera, showing all the emotion, all the politics and all the turmoil for what they are. It can be unflattering, it can be almost ugly, but there’s also something beautiful and inspiring in Poster Girl. Like a good anti-war movie, this documentary is about the people. Or in this case the person. Someone burned when the best of intentions didn’t line-up with realities on the ground. Hopefully, by making this film, Robynn Murray has found some piece, but something tells me she’s not there yet.