Wounded Marines learn filmmaking in innovative rehab class

By: GARY WARTH - Staff Writer
Graduates hope for careers in cinema | Friday, March 21, 2008 4:12 PM PDT ∞

SAN DIEGO ---- War movies may be a little more authentic in the future, thanks to what may be the most unconventional film school in the country.
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Nineteen students, including 10 who are still active in the U.S. Marine Corps, graduated Thursday as the first class of the Wounded Marine Careers Foundation, a 10-week vocational program run out of the Stu Segall Productions studios in San Diego.

"From now on, I'm going to sit through the movie credits all the way to the end," said Marine Maj. Gen. Michael Lehnert, one of several speakers addressing the graduating class.

Some of the graduates were answering a lifelong dream to learn filmmaking and photography. Others were just discovering a new passion they hoped would lead to a new chapter in their lives.

All of the men had suffered some kind of serious injury in the line of duty. Their matching tan class shirts hid the scars left from roadside bombs or sniper bullets.

But the day was not for remembering wounds of the past; rather, it was for a future with a new career.

"I still have pain, but it's very manageable," said Austin Davis, 24, a retired lance corporal who was injured by an improvised explosive device in 2006. The Knoxville, Tenn., native worked as director of photography on a documentary about Vietnam veterans and on a commercial as a film student.

The program was created by Kevin Lombard, an Emmy-winning cinematographer and documentary filmmaker, and his wife, Judith Ann Paixao.

"I'm speechless," Lombard said after the graduation. "I've never worked with a more dedicated, more loving, caring crew. That's what makes the Marine Corps so special. The teamwork."

Lombard had been asked to make a documentary about wounded Marines when he was struck by the idea of teaching Marines how to make their own films.

"We always come in and tell a story, and then leave the people behind," he said. "I wanted to change that."

Besides teaching the Marines a new vocation, Lombard said, he also believes the program can help them heal.

"We believe there's a therapeutic, healing aspect to storytelling," he said.

Future classes may include other branches of the military, but Lombard said he started with the Marines because the Corps is smaller. After some weeks of trying, he was able to get a meeting with Gen. James Conway, the Marine Corps commandant, who gave his blessing to the program.

The blessing came on the condition that Lombard set up the school near a Navy hospital, which limited his choices. San Diego was the final choice after Stu Segall agreed to set aside part of his movie lot off Ruffin Road for the school, and Lombard and Paixao sold their Connecticut home and moved west.

Next came pulling together a faculty composed of many of the professionals Lombard had met during his 36-year career and raising money from corporations and foundations to fund the inaugural class, which cost about $2 million.

The Wounded Marine Careers Foundation teaches classes in photography, sound, cinematography and filmmaking. Classes are held in a building with an exterior painted in camouflage. Interior walls are covered with framed student photos and posters of war movies such as "Top Gun," "Men With Wings" and "The Wild Blue Yonder."

Retired Gunnery Sgt. Nick Popaditch, 40, was the only student who worked on the sound of every film produced by the class.

"I specialize in sound, for obvious reasons," said Popaditch, who lost his right eye after a rocket-propelled grenade hit his tank. His prosthetic eye is emblazoned with the eagle, globe and anchor symbol of the U.S. Marine Corps, and his left eye has only 8 percent of its original vision.

Popaditch already has a job lined up after Thursday's graduation. He will teach sound to students at the Wounded Marine Careers Foundation.

"I found that what I do best is supervise Marines, so I'm staying on here," he said.

Retired Gunnery Sgt. Tai Cleveland, 42, said he hopes to take what he learned and return to his home in Virginia, where he and his wife, Robin, will open a production studio.

Cleveland, who uses a wheelchair, said several of his vertebrae were broken in a martial-arts training accident in Kuwait, but he didn't realize it until much later. He said surgery on his neck left him in a wheelchair because a screw that had been inserted slipped out of place and pierced his spinal cord.

As a graduate, Cleveland said, he has a new future ahead of him.

"I've never really known how to use a camera properly," he said. "Now I don't look at pictures the same. I've learned to shoot a picture, put it in perspective."

If he hadn't been selected for the school, Cleveland said, he'd probably be sitting at home, watching TV and wondering what to do next.

"Growing up in a low-income family, this opportunity wasn't even possible," said Cleveland, who added that he plans to talk to children in recreation centers and other facilities about his story.

"We had the cream of the crop teaching us," he said. "We have nowhere to go but up."

Contact staff writer Gary Warth at (760) 740-5410 or gwarth@nctimes.com.

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