This hour long documentary film explores the history of the department of Veterans Affairs — from the troubled beginnings of the Veterans Bureau of the 1920s, to the modern VA system. The film chronicles, in depth and often wrenching detail, the workings of this crucial but at times beleaguered American institution: exploring what it does and how it functions, its vast size and critical importance, its history and provenance — how and why it came into existence, how and why it has changed over time, how it has come to be broken in critical ways in recent generations and how it may be reformed going forward.
Interviewees include: Robert McDonald, former Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs; Dr. David Shulkin, Secretary of the Department of Veterans Afffairs; Anu Bhagwati, Captain Marine Corps, Ret.; Colin Moore, Director of the Public Policy Center, University of Hawaii; Former Congressman Jeff Miller, Representative Beto O’Rourke; Representative Seth Moulton; David Philipps, Pulitzer Prize winning National Correspondent for the New York Times; Linda Bilmes, Daniel Patrick Moynihan Senior Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard University; Paul Rieckhoff, Founder and CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America; and Scott Davis, VA Whistleblower; And families and veterans including, Howard and Jean Somers, Aimee Sherrod, Carlos and Norma Villasenor.