Filmmakers debut F-35 documentary
A black screen fades into a shot of a misty Vermont nature scene. The sound of birds chirping and wind rustling through trees is suddenly interrupted by the harsh, deafening sound of a fighter jet. This is the opening scene from Duane Peterson III and Patrick McCormack’s documentary, “Jet-Line: Voicemails From the Flight Path.
This documentary contrasts scenes from Vermont with voicemails from people sharing their opinions of the F-35 fighter jets that fly over Burlington and Winooski. Filmmakers Peterson and McCormack collected these voicemails by posting flyers throughout the Burlington area reading, “Seeking F-35 comments.”
Peterson and McCormack began planning this film in summer 2020.
“We started talking about what we saw as kind of this underappreciated issue, this issue that was a huge deal for a lot of people and it wasn’t getting the attention that we thought it ultimately deserved,” Peterson said.
Peterson and McCormack agree that the stories of those affected by the F-35 flight path were not getting enough attention.
“As filmmakers we saw something that we thought deserved more attention and we basically just used the skills available to us to help give the community a collective voice,” McCormack said.
Peterson and McCormack decided that an anonymous hotline would be the best way to collect these stories.
“Our goal with it was to eliminate all the barriers to entry and make it as easy as possible for people to just share these experiences,” Peterson said.
They put up flyers asking for anonymous opinions and opened the hotline in October 2020. They received over one hundred calls, most of which were from those who oppose the F-35. The film conveys this majority by featuring mostly voicemails from those who oppose the F-35 and only a few that support them.
“The film represents a pretty accurate ratio of the types of calls that we received,” McCormack said.
In addition, Peterson and McCormack also received calls from people who didn’t support their project.
“A lot of people who called didn’t necessarily call to say that they approved of the jets as much as they disapproved of our project,” Peterson said.
McCormack speculates that people who disapproved of the project assumed that McCormack and Peterson were only seeking complaints of the F-35.
“I think that this issue is a settled issue and the F-35s are here, and by all indications they’re not going anywhere, so I think a lot of people are kind of tired of hearing about them and just consider them a part of the new status quo, and I think that with this film we really wanted to try to challenge that status quo and look at what it really is like living with them,” Peterson said.
Although they weren’t able to fit all of the voicemails they received into the twelve minute film, Peterson and McCormack were grateful for the comments and were particularly struck by the emotional calls they received.
“A lot of them just kind of left me breathless,” Peterson said. “In particular are the ones where people are expressing desperation, expressing this kind of frustration that they didn’t feel that their opinions matter, that their experiences mattered, or that their voices mattered.”
The film features many heartbreaking messages from people who are physically and emotionally affected by the F-35. One caller measures a spike in blood pressure every time the jets fly over their house, while another is moving out of Vermont.
Recordings of these voicemails are played over scenes from the Burlington and Winooski area.
“We’re very intentional about not showing the F-35 because the story that we were seeing had nothing to do with what the jet looked like, it was about how they impacted people and a lot of that is on an audible level, so we didn’t feel like imagery of the jets would help convey that,” McCormack said. “We wanted to recreate the lived experience of being in these quiet suburbs that we love so much.”
While Peterson and McCormack have their own experience of living with the F-35, they didn’t want the documentary to feature their opinions.
“This film is not really about what we think, we are really trying to foreground the voice of the community here, which we recognize as underrepresented in the discourse around this,” Peterson said.
Peterson and McCormack said they want to express their gratitude to the anonymous callers.
“Our expectations were overwhelmed and it’s really been a revealing experience to listen to all these voicemails as they come in,” Peterson said.
“Jet-Line: Voicemails From the Flight Path” is available to stream here. The film will also be featured in the Vermont International Film Festival May 5 through 9.
