Brian Turner (Here, Bullet) is one of the writers included in the forthcoming documentary film Operation Homecoming: Writing The Wartime Experience (Tom Yellin, Executive Producer; Writer, Director and Producer, Richard E. Robbins). Turner reads his own work, and is featured prominently throughout the film.
The film is scheduled to premiere at the Film Forum in NYC on February 9th, and will be playing at a handful of film festivals, special events, and movie theaters around the country, through April. It is scheduled to premiere on television April 16th, 10 – 11pm, EST, on PBS’s America at a Crossroads.
We will add dates and locations as we learn them.
OPERATION HOMECOMING is a unique documentary that explores the firsthand accounts of American troops through their own words.The film is built upon the Operation Homecoming initiative created by the National Endowment for the Arts to gather the writing of soldiers and their families who have participated in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Through interviews and dramatic readings by such actors as Robert Duvall, Josh Lucas, Beau Bridges, Blair Underwood, Justin Kirk, Aaron Eckhart, Chris Gorham and John Krasinski, the film transforms selections from this collection of writing into a deep examination of the experiences of the men and women who are serving in America’s armed forces. At the same time it provides depth and context to these experiences through a broader look at the universal themes of war literature.
The NEA’s Operation Homecoming Initiative has collected thousands of pieces of writing from service members and their families to publish in an anthology Operation Homecoming: Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Home Front in the Words of U.S. Troops and Their Families (Random House, 2006). The film takes a handful of this writing as a central element – presenting powerful readings of the soldier’s words. These readings are brought to the screen though a variety of innovative filmmaking techniques that push the boundaries of traditional documentary, but avoid clumsy re-creations. Some stories are told through archival news images of the war. Several use striking visual collages to accompany the words of a poem. A few move even farther a field to illustration or animated still photographs, yet always rooted in a reading of the writer’s original words.
Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience
The NEA's Operation Homecoming
To arrange a reading or event with Brian Turner, please contact Alison Granucci at Blue Flower Arts.
Media: for review copies, press kits, or to arrange an interview, television/radio appearance, or other feature, please contact April Ossmann or Lacy Simons at Alice James Books.
