Dennis’ Frontline experience was rewarding— Obama’s War was nominated for a 2010 Emmy. Dennis also won the 2010 Bayeux-Calvados Award for War Correspondents for his work on the Frontline program. ^[9] But he had a lot of footage still unused. Moreover, he was not entirely satisfied with Obama’s War . It told a political story more than a combat story. For the first time, he thought about making a documentary of his own. He was not sure what the focus would be, but the subject would be the reality for US soldiers fighting in Afghanistan.

An early question was who to work with: a broadcast organization like Frontline that would help him make a film for television; or an independent production company that would work on a product for distribution in movie theaters? A broadcast partner was more likely to get the film made and in front of an audience—but it meant using a script. Dennis wanted to avoid that because that would have meant capturing footage to fit a preconceived storyline rather than recording events that unfolded around him. The independent option was riskier—a lower probability that Dennis would be able to complete the film or find an outlet for it if he did. But it promised Dennis editorial control.

For a while, it seemed as though the decision would be moot. In October 2009, Frontline Producer Marcela Gaviria approached Dennis to go back into Afghanistan. Dennis agreed and prepared to cover a new offensive centered on the town of Marjah in Helmand. ”I was packed and pretty much about to go,” he says. But the project was derailed: Dennis’ request to be embedded was denied. Dennis was relieved. He remembers:

Actually, it was a huge relief for me, because I knew at that point already that I didn’t want to make a film for broadcast. That was not a structure or a medium that I wanted to adhere to. It was very distant from how I saw the story being told. I wanted something much more visceral, something that was from the perspective of being on the ground and not at a high level of interviews with generals.

So Dennis set about finding a partner to help raise funds for an independent documentary where he would be able to call the shots. He knew it would be a longer, riskier process. “But it was important for me to keep that control,” he says. In November 2009, documentary director Richard Jobson connected Dennis with Michael Lerner and Martin Herring of London-based independent production company Roast Beef Productions. Dennis liked their work, particularly the documentary Afghan Star about contestants on a televised singing contest in Afghanistan. Roast Beef Productions was drawn to Dennis' cinematography and the power of his combat footage.

In mid-November, they signed a contract and Roast Beef Productions began the process of raising funds for a documentary. “That was a really frustrating process: very slow, time consuming, a lot of dead ends. It was a very difficult film to fund because of the subject matter,” says Dennis.

Meanwhile, Dennis went to North Carolina where the Marines of Echo Company were rotating home to their base at Camp Lejeune four months after the offensive he had documented. On November 17, he filmed the Marines’ emotional reunion with their families. At that point, says Lerner, “the film was very much a work in progress." ^[10]

We weren’t really sure what direction it would ultimately take. Fundamentally it was a project made by someone who never really considered themselves to be a filmmaker, someone who wasn’t really working to any kind of form or training or idea about what a film should be.

Lerner on the early production stages of the film.