The New Zealanders on the Western Front

Three short films by actor Robyn Malcolm (Outrageous Fortune), sculptor Helen Pollock and film maker David Blyth who eache made the journey back to the WWI battlefields of Northern France and Belgium to retrace the footsteps of their forefathers. Each has created a personal tribute to the sacrifices of the New Zealand Division on the Western Front. The screenings commemorate the First Battle of Passchendaele fought on October 12, 1917.

Falls the Shadow by Helen Pollock and Scott Ewing, shows the background and thinking behind the sculpture installation ‘Falls the Shadow’ by Helen Pollock. It is a personal “taking the box out from the bottom drawer” and an investigation of her father’s involvement as a young signaller on the Western Front. It makes comment on the long term never fully determined or acknowledged tragic consequences of WW1 on subsequent generations of New Zealanders. It was recently shown in the documentary section of the Antipodean Film Festival at St Tropez. 8.43mins

Our Lost War by Robyn Malcolm. Actor Robyn Malcolm visits the towns of Passchendaele and Ypres in Belgium - both near the cemetery where her great uncle, Private George Salmond, also an ANZAC signaller, is buried. He was killed in the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917, a victim of a battle recognised as a tragedy of poor planning and preparation. Local war experts pay tribute to the New Zealand soldiers' mettle, and Malcolm looks at the site and reflects on Uncle George and his sacrifice on foreign whenua. 44mins

French Connection by David Blyth. This is a newly completed film is about David Blyth’s grandfather Colonel Curly Blyth who served on the Western Front. Colonel Curly Blyth lived to be NZ’s oldest soldier surviving from WW1. He died when he was 105. The film focuses on Colonel Blyth’s relationship with the French town of Le Quesnoy which was liberated by New Zealand soldiers during the last days of WW1. 23mins

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