Nine days after getting married, Steve Metze found out he was being deployed as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Metze, a West Point graduate, Desert Storm veteran, and documentary filmmaker, decided to pack a camera and document his year in Iraq.

Metze gets closer to his subjects than even the most embedded reporter, and is able to use his eye for filmmaking to bring back more than simple home movies. The resulting film is an objective look at the lives of National Guard soldiers. There are no politics on the front line, only personalities and Metze captures all of them in a film that combines humor with the, often grim, realities of a war-torn country and the brave soldiers who live there.

Year at Danger is a soldier’s story, told by the soldier. No bias, no headlines, just the day-to-day reality of life in Iraq.