LOS ANGELES – "The War Tapes," the documentary that followed New Hampshire National Guard members through Iraq, has entered the Academy Awards campaign.

The film is among 15 feature-length documentaries that made the short list for Oscar consideration.

"I'm thrilled," said director Deborah Scranton of Goshen, the film's brainchild. "Even to make the short list, it's quite wonderful."

The film was edited from more than 800 hours of video shot by members of a Manchester-based company of the 172nd Mountain Infantry Regiment.

Scranton and her crew also filmed the guardsmen and their families during the men's training, their deployment and for 10 months after their return.

Seventeen soldiers ended up filming for Scranton. Five - Mike Moriarty of Windsor; Stephen Pink of Falmouth, Mass.; Zack Bazzi of Durham; Brandon Wilkins of Brunswick, Maine; and Duncan Domey of Londonderry - would carry cameras during their entire tour of duty, at a time when more than 1,000 New Hampshire Guardsmen were serving in Iraq.

Zack Bazzi of Durham, a member of the New Hampshire National Guard's 172nd Mountain Infantry Regiment, mounted a videocamera in his Humvee for "The War Tapes." (COURTESY PHOTO)

Bazzi agreed to mount a video camera in his Humvee. He told the New Hampshire Sunday News last June that he didn't spend a lot of time thinking about what it was filming: "When you leave the wire and there's the danger of IEDs, insurgents and RPGs, the last thing you worry about is what you look like on camera."

He told of the time the vehicle just ahead of Bazzi's own struck an IED (improvised explosive device).

"There's a moment where you don't know if your buddy is dead or alive," he said during the June interview. "It's a gut-wrenching feeling."

The list of 15 contenders was selected by the academy's documentary screening committee from 81 eligible films. Members of the academy's documentary branch will select five nominees from the short list, and finalists will be announced with the rest of the Oscar nominations Jan. 23.

Former Vice President Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth," about global warming, is in the running, along with two documentaries featuring church leaders involved in sex scandals and "Shut Up & Sing." That film examines the backlash against the Dixie Chicks after singer Natalie Maines told a concert crowd the country trio was ashamed President Bush comes from Texas, their home state.

The 79th Oscars will be presented Feb. 25.