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| The BBC The Great War series conduct interviews with veterans, 1960's. |
In the early 1960s, the BBC
interviewed 280 eyewitnesses of the First World War for the series, The
Great War. Using never-before-seen footage from these interviews, this
film illuminates the poignant human experience of the war, through the
eyes of those who survived it.
One of these veterans is an Australian. Wouldn't it have been great if Australian documentary makers had thought of interviewing Australian veterans then alive.
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| Cecil Arthur Lewis - in 1914 and in the 1960's |
Cecil Lewis is interviewed as part of this documentary. He became a famous war veteran who often
publicly recalled his experiences. He was one of the founding members of the
BBC and had a long and celebrated career as a writer, notably of the aviation
classic Sagittarius Rising. At the 1938 Academy Awards, he won an Oscar along
with George Bernard Shaw and two others for their screen adaptation of Pygmalion.
The Director, , wrote about why he made the series:
More than two years ago, I learned that the Imperial War Museum still had the original interview rushes of The Great War series from 1964, which the BBC had produced in partnership with IWM.
I was intrigued. Having worked on a few similar history series myself – such as Laurence Rees’s The Nazis or Auschwitz – I knew that only a tiny fraction of the recorded interviews would have made it to air.I reckoned many strong and insightful testimonies must have ended on the cutting room floor because they didn’t fit into the series’ narrative or because they were simply too long.
IWM had digital audio files of the interviews and I went through all 280 recordings (more than 50 hours) looking for testimonies about the human experience of the war.
I didn’t want to make I Was There: The Great War Interviews about the military or political history of the war. I wanted to make a film about individual responses to extreme situations.
For more of this interview, click here.
The Director, , wrote about why he made the series:
More than two years ago, I learned that the Imperial War Museum still had the original interview rushes of The Great War series from 1964, which the BBC had produced in partnership with IWM.
I was intrigued. Having worked on a few similar history series myself – such as Laurence Rees’s The Nazis or Auschwitz – I knew that only a tiny fraction of the recorded interviews would have made it to air.I reckoned many strong and insightful testimonies must have ended on the cutting room floor because they didn’t fit into the series’ narrative or because they were simply too long.
IWM had digital audio files of the interviews and I went through all 280 recordings (more than 50 hours) looking for testimonies about the human experience of the war.
I didn’t want to make I Was There: The Great War Interviews about the military or political history of the war. I wanted to make a film about individual responses to extreme situations.
For more of this interview, click here.
To watch this great new documentary click here.
Jim Claven
Secretary
Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee
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