Filmmaker Skye Fitzgerald carried the lessons he learned in high school in the tiny town of Monument all the way to war-torn Yemen, the setting for his latest documentary “Hunger Ward,” which is in the running for an Academy Award at Sunday’s ceremony.

It’s Fitzgerald’s second Oscar nomination, and he said his time growing up in rural Grant County taught him the value of hard work and gave him an appreciation of “the simple things in life” when his family moved to a house 16 miles outside of Monument that lacked running water and electricity when he was in eighth grade.

“The fact that we didn’t have running water or electricity made me appreciate them all the more when I went to college in La Grande at Eastern Oregon University,” he said.

Fitzgerald said he knew he wanted to pursue a career where he could bring to light the challenges faced by others in the world who lack fundamental resources such as running water, electricity or access to health care.

“In some small sense, I experienced some of that lack myself, and I wanted to make sure that whatever I devoted my career to, there’s an attempt to use my career for good to get change,” Fitzgerald said.

His 2018 film “Lifeboat,” which was also nominated for an Oscar, followed search and rescue operations off the coast of Libya.

“Hunger Ward,” competing in this year’s short documentary category, focuses on two therapeutic feeding centers in Yemen for children suffering from malnutrition. He said the Oscar nomination gives the documentary another chance to raise awareness about the conflict.

“It’s important that I use my own tools as a filmmaker to try to intervene and bring the issue to the largest audience possible to alter this unfolding tragedy that doesn’t need to occur because of this human-caused war,” Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald said he shot the film over 30 days in January and February last year in Yemen, a west Asian nation with an ongoing war between Saudi Arabian-backed pro-government forces and the rebel Houthi movement.

Filming in a conflict zone was challenging, especially when the Saudi coalitions reject journalists and filmmakers in the country. He said his party was detained in Yemen for seven hours before being released.

“You have to fight very hard and in nuanced ways to get into the conflict zone,” Fitzgerald said. “Once you’re there you have to work in careful, delicate ways to keep yourself from danger.”

Seeing children die was extremely difficult, he said, but the crew wanted to portray the war authentically — even if it was hard to watch.

“To me, it made the project even more important because it was so challenging,” Fitzgerald said. “Just because something is hard, it doesn’t mean that it’s not worthwhile. In some ways, I believe it’s more rewarding.”

Without electricity in Monument, Fitzgerald said he did not have a chance to learn much about cinema and media until he went to college, and his family is helping others dream big through the annual Dream Scholarship awarded to a graduate of Monument High School who is pursuing higher education.

Despite fewer resources in the small town, he said there are benefits as well, such as the extra attention and interaction that comes with small class sizes.

Fitzgerald said, ultimately, success is not tied to where a person went to school or even innate talent: It’s about will and a willingness to improve.

The 93rd Academy Awards ceremony will be aired from 5-8 p.m. Sunday, April 25, on ABC.

“To me, it made the project even more important because it was so challenging. Just because something is hard, it doesn’t mean that it’s not worthwhile. In some ways, I believe it’s more rewarding.”

—Skye Fitzgerald, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker and Monument High School graduate