Keith Curry, Jr. shares about being a U.S. Veteran, Filmmaker and student in the 18 month Filmmaking Program at FilmSchoolSF. The challenges and opportunities for Veterans to tell their stories and develop new creative careers in entertainment:

“Who really cares about veterans? They all say “Thanks for your service” but they don’t know what they are thanking me for. They don’t have a clue. But another veteran does. And the more people get to this kind of work – when you do have a voice, when you have a camera, when you work on a project and give a veteran’s point of view in that project – the more they help American population really understand what a veteran does, so people can be more engaged with us. The more veterans can pick up a camera, pick up a pen and write a screenplay or a script, the more people can really understand who we are as people.

My name is Keith Curry Jr. and it will be till the day I die but the day I raised my hand and joined the military I became a different person. My parents don’t understand me, nobody understands me. So we have to really find ways to get people to understand what we are coming from. For me that’s the most exciting gift that I can give to anybody. This is the way you can make a living, and while you are making a living you are not out breaking your back anymore, and at the same time you can apply yourself and contribute back to society by giving us a voice. That’s what fires me up.

The truth is that if you want to go to college, you either need to be very smart or play a sport and get a scholarship, or you have to get a student debt, or until recently you have to join the military and go to war and get your college paid for. So the price of my school was over 38 months of combat time. That was the deposit for my education.”

Watch the video to hear the rest of Keith’s story!