The Daily Bulletin Archive

The Burchfield Penney Art Center at Buffalo State welcomes director Ellen Goosenberg Kent to discuss her Academy Award–winning documentary Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1, on Thursday, June 25, at 7:00 p.m. in the Peter and Elizabeth C. Tower Auditorium.

Crisis Hotline, a 2013 film about the Veterans Crisis Line, received the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject in 2015.

Based in Canandaigua, New York, and available around the clock, the Veterans Crisis Line receives more than 22,000 calls each month from veterans of all conflicts who are struggling or contemplating suicide because of the psychological wounds of war and the challenges of returning to civilian life. Crisis Hotline spotlights the traumas endured by America’s veterans as seen through the work of the hotline’s trained responders, who provide immediate intervention and support.

Since 2001, more veterans have died by their own hand than in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, one veteran dies by suicide in America every 80 minutes. While only 1 percent of Americans have served in the military, former service members account for 20 percent of all suicides in the United States.

Goosenberg Kent’s HBO credits include “Wartorn: 1861–2013”; “Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq” and “Talked to Death” (Emmy Award nominees); and “How Do You Spell God?” “Going, Going, Almost Gone! Animals in Danger,” “I Have Tourette’s but Tourette’s Doesn’t Have Me,” and “Happy to Be Nappy and Other Stories of Me” (Emmy Award winners).

Crisis Hotline is presented by HBO Documentary Films in association with Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA). The film is free with gallery admission. Gallery admission is free for Burchfield Penney members, students, and faculty or staff members of Buffalo State.

More information is available at www.burchfieldpenney.org.