OPERATION HOMECOMING is a unique documentary that explores the firsthand accounts of American troops through their own written words and offers a profound window into the human side of the war being fought in Iraq. Directed and Produced by the award-winning ABC news team of Richard E. Robbins and Tom Yellin who both made documentaries for Peter Jennings, comes a film built around a project initiated by the National Endowment for the Arts to gather the writing of soldiers on the front. In 2004, the NEA sent bestselling authors to military bases to teach workshops and in turn, the foundation received thousands of pages of poetry, fiction, memoir, letters, journals, and essays. OPERATION HOMECOMING is the stunning collection of these unfiltered firsthand accounts.

Providing depth and context to the soldier’s experience, OPERATION HOMECOMING weaves interviews with the troops included in the NEA-sponsored book of the same name with dramatic readings of their writing by distinguished actors including Beau Bridges, Robert Duvall, Chris Gorham, Aaron Eckhart, Justin Kirk, John Krasinski, Josh Lucas, Brian Turner and Blair Underwood. The stories recounted are sad, funny, violent, and uplifting, and each one displays a poignancy that is rarely captured in explorations of war. Along with interviews with great American writers who are war veterans, OPERATION HOMECOMING offers an honest and intensely personal look at the human side of America’s current military conflicts.

The company is sending me a copy to review. I’ll let you know how it is.