Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker have spent the last decade examining the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through documentary film: Gunner Palace, The Prisoner or: How I planned to kill Tony Blair, Bulletproof Salesman, and this year’s How to Fold a Flag, which features a second war—the battle soldiers face when they come home and try to resume a so-called normal life. The film follows four men who served together in Iraq and continue to be haunted by images of combat. Jon Powers, a substitute teacher running for Congress in Buffalo, New York, is being smeared by his opponents. Michael Goss struggles with depression and finds release in cage fighting in Texas. Wilf Stuart plays guitar in a death metal band, working nights at a convenience store. Javorn Drummond works in a hog processing plant in North Carolina.  Each man is marked by a profound sense of dislocation and inexorable loss. As Javorn says, “We went to war as a unit and came home alone.”

Conversation following screening with filmmaker Michael Tucker and special guests Javorn Drummond and Jon Powers, moderated by D.G. Martin, columnist and host, UNC TV and WCHL Radio.