Production Notes

"Another Life" is a USC thesis film made by underdog student filmmakers on a shoestring budget. The producers achieved high-class production values and superb performances out of sheer hard work, heavenly phone bills, and lots of heart.

Award-winning Cinematographer Jay Visit developed a poignant documentary style with director Nathan Ruegger using cold blues, luscious yellows, and handheld camera work to portray a real woman on the threshold of two worlds and two choices.

The cast and crew of Another Life created a fully realistic depiction of an Iraq War skirmish on a microbudget scale through painstaking attention to detail in costumes and props, well-researched performances, and highly accurate sound design.

"Another Life" was filmed in Los Angeles, the city with the highest population of Iraq War veterans in America.

Tracy Coogan immersed herself in character research for the role of Angela: interviewing various Iraq War veterans, getting used to wearing her Army uniform at home, and even training to handle and fire military grade weapons.

Writer/Director Nathan Ruegger devoted all twenty drafts of his script to writing an engaging narrative built on careful research and candid interviews with veterans of the Iraq War.

In a U.S. Veteran Affairs study, approximately one in five American veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

"Another Life" joins the ranks of "The Hurt Locker," "The Best Years of Our Lives," and the long tradition of great American films that tell the timeless true story of soldiers struggling to readjust to life on the home front.