FAR FROM HOME: CANADA AND THE GREAT WAR
DOCUMENTARY SERIES 3 x TWO HOURS
Editor: Gina Binetti, Marta Nielsen
Narrator: Paul Gross
Composer: Aaron Davis, John Lang
Writer: Richard Nielsen, James Wallen
Producer: Richard Nielsen
SYNOPSIS
Sam's Army, The Battle of Vimy Ridge (produced in 1997), and The Last 100 Days constitute a six hour three-part series on the First World War, the first television series telling the complete story of Canada's achievements in WWI.
In Sam's Army, Canada was led to war by a bigoted, ignorant, self-obsessed Minister of Militia, who may well have been clinically insane, but the importance of Canada's contribution in that war owes a great deal to him. The man of course, was Colonel - later made Lieutenant General by his own hand - Sam Hughes.
The Battle of Vimy Ridge is a two-hour television documentary which recreates for the viewer one of the greatest battles in Canadian military history. The film was made to show that Canadian character at its best, forging an identity for a country that before the First World War had been seen only as a British colony - an identity and a character that became recognized and respected throughout Europe.
The other implausible story forms the heart of The Last 100 Days, namely that Canadian military accomplishments in the last hundred days of World War I, when the German Army was destroyed, surpassed those of any other army. Further, that the Canadian success was, in no small measure, due to Arthur Currie, whom a recent British historian describes as "the most successful Allied General and one of the least well known."
The cinematic approach is similar to that used in No Price Too High, Norflicks' World War II series, and resembles Ken Burns' The Civil War. We say resemble because World War I gives us many more visual resources at our disposal than did The Civil War. Our method uses letters, speeches, articles and reports from the time read by actors who are not seen and who assume the character as well as the identity of the author of the written material.
CBC/BRAVO 1999 ENGLISH/FRENCH |
