Air Force Major’s New Film Explores the Lasting Impact of Sexual Trauma

Allie Delury traded her role as an Air Force combat camera operator for something a little less stressful: a feature film producer.

However, speaking days before her short film “Fault” was set to debut at the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival in New York City, Delury was feeling a rush of nervous energy she hadn’t experienced in a while.

“I’m over the moon,” Delury told Military.com. “Coming from my background, not getting into film until later than most, it feels very, very surreal that my film is debuting at Tribeca, one of the top five film festivals in the world. I hope this is just the beginning. I’m very excited to be hitting the red carpet in a few days.”

More importantly, Delury hopes the film shines a spotlight on the raw, emotional and psychological effects of sexual abuse and lasting trauma, a hot topic recently with the controversial Epstein files making headlines.

“I think the story is more relevant now, given where we are with the Trump administration and the Epstein files, looking at how women process trauma and what maybe the secondary and tertiary effects of sexual trauma or physical trauma may be,” Delury said. “I think that’s being unearthed in kind of this new wave of feminism that is unfolding.”

Story Provides Voice for Women

“Fault” follows the story of Steph and Gigi, two elite tennis stars and estranged sisters who meet the night before the U.S. Open to rehash old childhood wounds. The tense confrontation threatens Steph’s career and sanity just hours from the biggest match of her life.

“They disclose some buried trauma, sexual trauma around their shared tennis coach,” Delury said. “So, it kind of really explores how two different people process the same trauma, and kind of the extremes of that. But in all, the coach can be replaced with really anything that unearths trauma in anyone’s life.”

Coco Jourdona, who plays Gigi in “Fault,” leans on some of her real-life experiences in the short narrative, her first foray into film acting.

Delury, an Air Force major who left active duty for the reserves in 2017, also knows sexual harassment and assault affect at least 1 in 3 women in the military.

“In some way, professionally, the question of, ‘Do I speak up and lose my career because of it, or do I just deal with it because I wouldn’t have a career outside of it?’ I think that’s something that a lot of women struggle with, and it’s enraging that it’s the predicament that we can be in as women in 2026,” Delury said. “I think the more stories that shed light on that and really encourage women to be empowered and be confident in themselves and not dependent on a toxic relationship, is even more important in today’s age.”

Air Force Experience Proves Valuable

After leaving active duty, Delury, along with her husband, founded the only production company in New York City operated exclusively by veterans.

She credits her work as a combat camera operator for giving her the knowledge and leadership skills to succeed in film production.

“It kind of forced me to learn how to use a camera and how to manage a team and how to document stuff in very austere conditions and environments all around the world,” Delury said. “And I took that knowledge and years later finally had the guts to open my own production company in Brooklyn.”

Her Air Force career also taught her how to adapt to challenges. She produced “Fault” three months after giving birth, sometimes having to sneak away to breastfeed her baby while her radio crackled with “Where’s Ally?” inquiries from anxious production staffers.

However, under the constraints of a tight deadline and small budget, Delury marveled at her dedicated staff for coming together to produce a Tribeca-worthy film.

“I was just so floored with the way every department came through and just gave it their all. It’s very similar, honestly, to military culture.

When you’re in the military, and you’re working on an operation, there’s such a team effort where all these squadrons come together to make the mission successful,” she said. “It’s never just the pilots or the maintainers; it’s all these support divisions and squadrons that step in and make sure the job gets done. On a film set, it’s very similar.”

The Tribeca Film Festival runs through June 14.