HBO, an American network, is airing a documentary on the nation’s families who lost their loved one fighting in Iraq. Titled “Section 60: Arlington National Cemetery” after the plot of land in Arlington National Cemetery reserved for deceased veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, the documentary profiles family members left to pick up the pieces after they received the call that their husband or son was not coming back home. Made by two veteran directors, who had previously made another HBO documentary on the U.S. military medical staff in Baghdad titled properly “Baghdad ER”, have now decided to focus on consequences of the war back home.

The two films are directly connected through the story of 21 year old Lance Cpl. Robert T. Mininger. Corporal Mininger is seen dying in “Baghdad ER” due to shrapnel wound he suffered when his convey was blown up by a road-side bomb. In “Section 60″ the directors introduce the audience to Mininger’s mother, Paula Zwillinger.

But this was not intentionally and nor was the documentary. In the process of filming “Baghdad ER”, the directors took it upon themselves to meet with Miniger’s mother and overtime a friendship was forged between the two filmmakers, HBO’s president and Paula Zwillinger. One day HBO’s president called Paula and found out that she was in the cemetery visiting her son along with many other mothers and wives who lost their own in Iraq.

It was then that HBO’s president realized that this was a experience, a story that needed to be film and the result of that revelation is “Section 60″.

Although “Baghdad ER” was an emotionally journey for filmmaker Matthew O’ Neil, the other filmmaker is John Alpert, it was “Section 60″ that touched him most. As he recounted to The New York Times: “I never cried while holding the camera in ‘Baghdad ER’. I was always focused on the moment and how things were moving. More times than I can count in ‘Section 60,’ as someone’s crying and sharing and talking, I’m dripping tears on the lens.’”

At a time when most American have come around to accepting the belief that the war in Iraq was not worth the effort, “Section 60″ is a timely remember of the costs of war during an election where the choice is between one man who opposed the war and another who is one of its most hawkish supporters.