# The CBC and  Mckenna Wants Volunteers for Vimy Docu-DRAMA- Hmmm....



## Bruce Monkhouse (16 Jul 2005)

The CBC wants you!

That is, if your great-grandfather helped take Vimy Ridge, or was one of the half-million Canadians who fought in the Great War.
Writer-director Brian McKenna is putting out the call for 300 volunteers willing to walk in their ancestors' footsteps, literally.
It's all part of a massive four-hour docu-drama project scheduled to air on CBC-TV in 2007 to mark the 90th anniversary of the battle of Vimy Ridge.

McKenna (The Killing Ground, War at Sea) says he first got the idea when he saw his grandfather's kid brother's grave at Ypres, an emotional moment that set him on his career path of researching Canadian war history.

â Å“And then finding his papers in the national records office at the Archives and seeing his signature. It was electrifying!â ?
He says anyone can log onto the National Archives website and trace their ancestors' war records. And so he wants to use the Internet for his own recruitment campaign. Anyone interested in participating in the project can sign up.
But it won't be a picnic.

Plans call for having some of the volunteers re-live the soldier experience next summer. They will be brought by train to Montreal, then overseas to England to take part in an authentic First World War boot camp, then onto the actual battlefields of France to participate in huge battle recreations, in effect walking through their ancestor's war.
McKenna envisages how the film will show a typical young volunteer being sent into the spooky tunnels that are still preserved at Vimy.
â Å“He would go down, wearing the jeans and shoes of a kid today, and in the film he would come out of the tunnel in the middle of the battle as his great-grandfather.â ?

Afterwards he would be taken right to the grave of his relative.
McKenna says he doesn't know the budget for the project, a collaboration between CBC and Montreal's Galafilm, but feels the need to bring the Canadian experience of the First World War into the present. He notes how historians call it our war of independence, one in which we sent more than 400,000 troops overseas and a staggering 60,000 of them were killed, with an agonizing impact on just about every family in the country.

And yet, he says, it seems so distant and remote now.
He's also gratified that Radio Canada is committed to the project, given the war's conscription crisis that severely divided the young nation.

â Å“But the conscription story overshadows the fact that there were at least 15,000 French-speaking Quebecers who volunteered to go to war,â ? he notes. â Å“One of our greatest regiments, the Van Doos, the Royal 22nd Regiment, was created during the First World War.â ?
But he says their story of courage and sacrifice remains basically untold in Canada and particularly in Quebec.

â Å“I think they got excited about telling this story as well. That we have to move beyond the old things that have divided us and find new things that we went through together that might unite us.â ?

Like the way the Valour and the Horror united us?
http://www.valourandhorror.com/DB/ISSUE/Senate_hearings.php


----------



## Spr.Earl (17 Jul 2005)

Bruce I saw nothing wrong with Valour and the Horror,the victors always paint a pretty picture after the fact but never mention the foibles during the Conflict from our side.

Case in point is of late the Korean Vets objected to the incidence of V.D. amongst our Troops in the Korea in our New Museum and that fact has been removed now.

I believe we must show the both side's of War as we fought it as Nation,the good with the bad,if we don't' we will not learn from our past mistakes as a Nation.

A friend of mine,his father was a Engineer in WW II,he was a dozer operator,he captured 2 Germans,brought them and was told to get rid of them and he knew what was meant,he took them out and told them to rause,instead of murdering them,he let them go.

Yes the Allies committed War Crimes,the only difference is we won the War and I think we must show these failings from our past so I may learn and the younger generation may learn also what War does to a normal person that has been taken away from normal life and yes even we can be evil.


----------



## lou133 (20 Jul 2005)

that's great, is there a link where we can register or it's not up yet, i tried to search on cbc.ca but couldn't find anything


----------



## rmc_wannabe (20 Jul 2005)

lou133 said:
			
		

> that's great, is there a link where we can register or it's not up yet, i tried to search on cbc.ca but couldn't find anything



http://www.cbc.ca/greatwar


----------



## lou133 (20 Jul 2005)

thanks dude


----------



## Warvstar (21 Jul 2005)

Btw if any of you make it please post here.


----------



## rmc_wannabe (21 Jul 2005)

lou133 said:
			
		

> thanks dude



No problem. Keeping my fingers crossed on this one.


----------



## lou133 (22 Jul 2005)

i think it would be a good experience, plus it would one of the rare war movie on ww1, also with a major canadian battle


----------



## gt102 (9 Aug 2005)

Well... I am going to apply... I my Ancester was pretty young when he joined. So, my age is only of by 6 years (they want volunteers to be of an age close to that of their ancesters) My Great, Great Grandfather L/Cpl Mepham, Walter died 1918 and is currently burried in Belgium.

Do you know if they have any age restrictions? Because on their site they do not list any. The only thing I found on age is that they prefere you to be rough age of your ancester (but it is not required)

Another question, not sure where the appropriate place would be to put it.. but, here goes nothing.

Does anyone know where I could find details on the battles that the 82nd O.S Battalian (Highlanders) C.E.F. and the 42nd Bn. May have participated in? I have had no such luck. Responce much appreciated!


----------



## Roy Harding (9 Aug 2005)

The Crowe said:
			
		

> .....
> 
> Another question, not sure where the appropriate place would be to put it.. but, here goes nothing.
> 
> Does anyone know where I could find details on the battles that the 82nd O.S Battalian (Highlanders) C.E.F. and the 42nd Bn. May have participated in? I have had no such luck. Responce much appreciated!



www.calgaryhighlanders.com/ch1.htm
www.regiments.org/regiments/na-canada/warformed/inf-cef/082bn.htm
www.diggerhistory.info/pages-flags/calgary.htm
members.tripod.com/RegimentalRogue/cef_perpetuation/cef_infantry_51-100.htm

There's many more - took me 2 seconds on Google.  I thought all you young guys were "computer savvy"??

Throw the keywords "82nd" and "CEF" into Google - as always, however, be cautious regarding the veracity of anything read on the 'Net.

Or - you could PM recceguy - I think he was there ...

EDIT:  addition of last sentence, couldn't resist.


----------



## Danjanou (9 Aug 2005)

Retired CC said:
			
		

> Or - you could PM recceguy - I think he was there ...



Of course he was there. In that group picture you took he's the guy to the left of Sapper Earl. ;D

Looks like an interesting and ambitious project. Like others I hear the name Mckenna and cringe a bit, but am willing to wait and see the final product with an open mind.


----------



## Roy Harding (9 Aug 2005)

Danjanou said:
			
		

> Of course he was there. In that group picture you took he's the guy to the left of Sapper Earl.  ;D


You can barely make him out - as you may recall, the lighting wasn't great that day!



			
				Danjanou said:
			
		

> Looks like an interesting and ambitious project. Like others I hear the name Mckenna and cringe a bit, but am willing to wait and see the final product with an open mind.



I'm with you on cringing, but waiting a bit (with an open mind). 

The CONCEPT sounds great - I can picture in my mind the scene in which modern young guys in sneakers enter the tunnels and emerge as their ancestors - very dramatic and moving!


----------



## jmacleod (12 Aug 2005)

McKenna is certainly professionally qualified to do a good job - but I am always apprehensive about
the current CBC - at my age, I remember when the CBC was the most signifcant broadcaster in
the America's, but those days are long gone. The best source for a screenplay would probably
be the late Pierre Berton's "Vimy" - his masterpiece. I recently saw the noted French film "A Very
Long Engagement" set in France, circa 1914-1925, which contains some of the most compelling
combat footage of the Western Front, since "All Quite on the Western Front" (the original) and
"Paths of Glory" - the masterful Kubrick film - I mention these because a docudrama for TV from
Canada must contain the same element of authenticity, expert photography (the French film is
photographed in sepia tone, which ages it dramatically) and an excellent screenplay (the hard 
part) with a Canadian cast and crew where possible. Vimy should, like the story of the Schooner
"Bluenose" be on film in a Canadian legacy. MacLeod


----------



## Black Watch (12 Aug 2005)

what if my great grandfather was in the frensh army???


----------



## Roy Harding (12 Aug 2005)

Black Watch said:
			
		

> what if my great grandfather was in the frensh army???


Ask them here:

http://www.greatwar.ca/


----------



## aesop081 (12 Aug 2005)

Black Watch said:
			
		

> what if my great grandfather was in the frensh army???



The french army ?   Whats that ?   I thought they only had surrender units   ;D


----------



## Danjanou (12 Aug 2005)

Aesop place nice. 

Blackwatch this appears to be a Canadian project. May be worth checking French military sites to see if they have any similar projects in the works.


----------

