MAJOR GLORIA A. DOWNEY USAF JAG CORPS (RETIRED)

Sun Tzu called war “diplomacy by other means” and I call filmmaking: 

“litigation by other means”. 

My name is Gloria, some call me Major, some call me The Glorious G, many don’t know what to call me, most can’t help but remember me. I prosecuted rapists and terrorists in the United States Air Force and personally combated the military sexual trauma epidemic while also prosecuting, defending, and serving under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Moved by 9/11, at 30 years old, after spending several years fighting for an impossible justice as a public defender in the south, I competed to be a JAG. With a 10 percent selection rate at the time and lacking the pedigree of other attorneys, this was an incredible longshot, but I was selected. I became a tremendously successful trailblazing JAG and officer, and was respected by the enlisted, my opposition, my superiors, and my peers. I served from 2002 to 2009, throughout the most intense periods of the U. S. post-9/11 war era actively supporting warfighters throughout my service. 

In 2007, I was injured in Baghdad during a difficult and dangerous deployment where I prosecuted terrorists in the Central Criminal Court of Iraq. I began seeking care immediately upon my return from Iraq and was handed my first bag of pills instead of healthcare by the Air Force. Faced with attempts to redeploy me despite my injuries, I sought medical retirement and was permanently retired and promoted to Major on the same day in 2009.  

I immediately began seeking care for my injuries from the VA in 2009 and was further buried in pills and apathy instead of what I desperately needed: healthcare and support. Due to the financial burden of being medically retired without combat recognition, accurate disability compensation or post-injury support, in need of healthcare and surgeries, and unable to effectively care for myself, I eventually found myself unable to afford housing. In 2012, I returned to school to use my G.I. Bill solely to keep a roof over my head while also pursuing the healthcare I knew I needed if I was ever to live a real life again.  

Fortunately, once I was back in school, I soon realized my lifelong passion for film. I completed my MFA in Directing Academy of Art University in San Francisco in 2015. My student thesis film Forgive Me Father appeared in 7 film festivals and was nominated for Best Director at AAU's NXTUp! in 2015. The film places an injured terrorist and his U.S. soldier guard in an impossible situation: “in the war of God vs. God, no one wins”. In 2017, I finally underwent my first Iraq-related surgery. I have been actively engaged in learning how to heal for myself and others since.

My second film, a feature documentary, Women of War: Invisible made its world premiere at the Lady Filmmaker's Film Festival in 2021. It won Best Feature at the Worldwide Women's Film Festival in 2022. Additionally, it received multiple other official selections and nominations. The film focuses on three female combat veterans of the post-9/11 era, is interpreted through dance, and asks, “can you see us now?” In 2022, after 15 years of fighting despite tremendous emotional strain, the Air Force finally recognized my combat service in Iraq. That same year, I also completed a short documentary film about my service in Iraq – my footage, my experience, and my voice – it is called What I Did in the War. The film won Best Documentary at AAU’s NXTUp! in 2022 and achieved semifinalist status at the Flickers Rhode Island Film Festival in 2023. 

Veteran’s Crisis Line, a short narrative film about the VA suicide and pill epidemic is currently in post-production. I directed the film and wrote the screenplay which won Best Screenplay at AAU’s NXTUp! in 2022. While finally coming off the endless VA pill supply in 2021, unassisted by the VA despite repeated requests, I realized one day that “we aren’t killing ourselves” and the idea for the film was born. Production was completed in 2022 and Veteran’s Crisis Line is on track for completion in 2024. I earned an MFA in screenwriting from Academy of Art University in 2023. 

I recently completed Eddy Out, a feature documentary film about a veteran’s mindfulness trip on the San Juan River in Utah. The film is currently in consideration for film festivals. Eddy Out speaks to my newfound passion for fusing nature and mindfulness into weapons for veterans battling mental health challenges. I fell in love with the river when I shot this film in 2022 and it is now my primary means of therapy.

I continue to work on other projects including Women of War: Untouchable, a feature documentary filmed in cooperation with the people of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. It is the historical companion to my epic feature film screenplay, Malicious Disobedience, a radical intersectional feminist reimagining of the massacres and “heroes” of the Indian Wars. Like Diamond for the Flies, a pilot to my series about my military service and my war for recovery since Iraq, will be submitted to screenwriting festivals in 2024. 

I am originally from Miami, Florida but I have lived and traveled all over the world. I am a nomad by nature. My chosen home is the Bay Area of California, but I spend as much time as possible in Miami with my aging parents and my dog JuneBug. 

I now consider myself: a healing warrior on a bridging mission.