Another Day in Paradise

More than 5,000 sailors live onboard the USS Nimitz, a nuclear aircraft carrier. All have been forced to leave friends, family and loved ones behind for a six-month deployment to the Persian Gulf, during which they'll face confining quarters, harsh temperatures, extreme work conditions and conflicts over faith and duty. Another Day in Paradise focuses on a pilot, Marine and sailor in different phases of fatherhood and impending fatherhood, as they struggle with family issues while serving their country in the high-stakes, dangerous environment of an aircraft carrier.

Created from the same pool of material as the PBS series Carrier, Another Day in Paradise is an intimate, vérité film about three men—pilot Doug Booher, Marine Randy Brock and ordnanceman Chris Altice—performing disparate but connected roles on the Nimitz, from flying F-18s to maintaining the aircraft to loading bombs. Going deeply into the personal lives of these individuals, this film portrays them dealing with life as fathers and soon-to-be fathers, while also confronting and questioning issues surrounding their work onboard ship and the role of the Navy in a time of war.

Filmed between May and November 2005 onboard the USS Nimitz, Another Day in Paradise addresses the themes of love and war, examining what motivates the men and women on board the USS Nimitz. For some, it's patriotism; for some, it's each other; and for many, it's just counting the days until they get home to families and loved ones. Allowing the pilots, sailors and Marines to speak for themselves, the film offers a rare glimpse into the thoughts and lives of the people who are fighting out there for the American people.

Credits

Director/Co-Producer: Deborah Dickson
Producers: Mel Gibson, Bruce Davey, Nancy Cotton, Maro Chermayeff, Mitchell Block
Cinematographers: Axel Baumann, Ulli Bonnekamp, Mark Brice, Robert Hanna, Wolfgang Held
Editor: Sabine Krayenbuehl
Composer: Christopher Tin
Running Time: 90 min.
Website: pbs.org/weta/carrier
Article: Anchors Aweigh! Ten-Part 'Carrier' Series Set for Deployment on PBS

About the Filmmaker

DEBORAH DICKSON, a three-time Academy Award nominee, is an independent filmmaker based in Brooklyn, New York.

Her film Ruthie and Connie: Every Room in the House premiered at the 2001 Berlin Film Festival and won over 14 awards at festivals worldwide, including best documentary at the Seattle Film Festival and the Nashville Film Festival. The film was short-listed for an Academy Award nomination and broadcast on Cinemax in 2004. The Education of Gore Vidal premiered at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival and was broadcast on PBS' American Masters.

Frances Steloff: Memoirs of a Bookseller, which Dickson produced, directed and edited, premiered at both Sundance and Berlin, and was nominated for an Academy Award. It was broadcast on WNET. Suzanne Farrell: Elusive Muse (co-directed with Anne Belle) premiered at the New York Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award in 1997. Lalee's Kin (the eighth film in collaboration with Susan Froemke and Maysles Films) premiered at Sundance in 2000 and was nominated for a Spirit Award and an Academy Award. It won a DuPont Award in 2004.

In addition to Another Day in Paradise, Dickson has recently completed Witnesses To a Secret War, a documentary film about the CIA's Secret War in Laos—a side show to the war in Vietnam—and the Hmong soldiers who fought for the Americans but were left to fend for themselves after the communist takeover in 1975.

Dickson received a BA in English literature from Barnard College and an MFA in film from New York University.