Lynn
Estomin

Warrior Writers

When I read Re-Making Sense, a book of creative writing and poetry by young veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, my immediately thought was "This work has to reach a broader audience." After meeting Kelly Dougherty while I was filming my documentary Walkin' to New Orleans, I began working with Warrior Writers. This portfolio is an on-going series of portraits of young veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and their participation in Warrior Writers, an organization that provides a creative and supportive community for artistic expression, healing and transformation for veterans, using art as a way to process and make sense of military experiences.

As a filmmaker and former dancer, I often visualize words in images and movement, so I approached Kelly Knox, choreographer and Ritsu Katsumata, composer about collaborating on my idea of interpreting the raw and powerful words of four young female veterans in film, dance and music. The result is Out of Step, a video that uses voice-over by four young female veterans as a backdrop to dance interpretations of their emotional journey from idealistic recruits to veterans coping with PTSD.