Adam Prudhomme
Beaver Staff
Filmmaker Eric Brunt is travelling coast-to-coast, racing against Father Time as he attempts to document as many living Second World War veterans as possible.
Last Tuesday the 25-year-old Victoria, B.C. native stopped over in Napanee, to spend the night after conducting interviews in Belleville.
Since launching the project he’s spoken with over 100 veterans across the country over the last four months, getting as many firsthand accounts on film as he can.
“My own grandfather was in the Air Force and he lived to the old age of 95,” said Brunt. “You kind of take it for granted the stories he tells you growing up. When he does pass away, you realize a little bit of history goes with them. With that in mind, I decided to save up my money and make this project happen.”
Rather than wait for funding, he says he took the bold step of just funding the project with his own money as he knows there are fewer and fewer living veterans in Canada each year. It’s now been 73 years since the end of the Second World War, and even the youngest among those who served were into the teens at the time.
“Hopefully down the road I’ll be able to figure out where it’ll be seen, whether it’ll be for educational purposes, in local theatres or maybe even online,” said Brunt. “That will hopefully fall into place. But I think the more important thing is to try and get as many stories from men and women from the era captured as possible.”
As such he’s actively seeking any veteran willing to share their story. They can be wide ranging as well, such as the two stories he documented while in nearby Belleville.
The first was of Bill Robertson, who was in the Royal Canadian Air Force.
“These huge planes had seven people crews on them, they’d go over occupied Europe and drop bombs over manufacturing depots to slow down the German war machine and lower German morale and hopefully change the tide of war,” said Brunt. “The plane was attacked by a German fighter and (Robertson) actually parachuted out and basically was hiding out from the Germans for several months before he was eventually able to get back into the U.K. It’s almost like something out of a movie. He’s 97 and he’s telling me what it’s like to fall through the air at however thousand feet they are in the night, then pulling your parachute and you don’t expect the jolt that’s caused by the parachute until it actually happens.”
Brunt says it’s the minute details that he’s after, the ones that only those who have gone through it can articulate.
His second story of the day was that of Kenny Chambers.
“She was a photographer during the war,” explains Brunt. “She was in charge of the cameras that would take photographs of pilots during bombing practices in P.E.I. because they had to train before they were sent overseas.”
Later on she was tasked with documenting surgeries of prisoners of war when they returned home.
Working with Napanee’s Sherry Pringle, he was hoping to speak with some of Lennox and Addington veterans as well during his stay.
He says his film will be an eye opener even for some of the family members of the veterans, as it was rare for soldiers to discuss what they had seen overseas upon returning home.
“I’ve been encountering that a lot, family members telling me they never used to talk about their experiences,” said Brunt. “But in the last five years they’ve really opened up. I think the fact that there’s not many of them left, they’re realizing they’re the last remaining veterans and they’re starting to realize it’s their duty to make sure these memories are preserved in some way.”
It’s with that in mind that he developed his working title of Last Ones Standing.
He plans to continue to gather stories over the next several months with the goal of having it done in time for June 6, which will be the 75th anniversary of the date Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy during the critical D-Day battle.
In the meantime he’s asking any veterans who would want to share their stories to reach him through www.ericbruntmedia.ca, his Facebook page or by calling 1-778-714-0071.