Kimberly Peirce

When a war goes on for five years, it creates a rare opportunity to tell the story of a war as it’s still going on. The filmmaker Kimberly Peirce has done that. Her new film is Stop-Loss, a drama about soldiers dealing with the so-called “back door draft” that prohibits them from retiring once their required term of service is complete. Her last film, Boys Don’t Cry, was released to great acclaim in 1999, and earned its star Hilary Swank the Academy Award for Best Actress.