The Oscars are a hop, skip and a jump away (a week and a half!) so I thought it might be nice to look at the 4th nominee for Best Documentary, Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience (directed by Richard Robbins). The movie takes firsthand accounts from soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan and their families and turns them into a movie. Their experiences are told to us in interviews and dramatic readings that are accompanied by real footage, photos and animations, to paint a portrait of what it is really like to be in the war.

More than that, Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience, puts what the soldiers are going through in the context of war literature and their personal experiences gain depth and understanding. Some of the soldiers write prose, some poetry, some letters and some simply in a journal - but no matter what method they use to express themselves, the film takes their words and turns them into an honest and moving portrait of war and of what it means to engage in it.

To hear their stories is to hear a plea for understanding, especially for Americans to understand what the war is, what it costs and what it meant to them.

You can rent the DVD, or you can and read the soldiers words for yourself. It might not seem like your taking action by reading a book - but for these soldiers, it’s the most important thing you could do. While you wait for the book to arrive, watch the trailer below: