Paperny Films releases “MURDER IN NORMANDY” and “FORCED MARCH TO FREEDOM” for Remembrance Day
In honour of Remembrance Day, Paperny Films is pleased to announce the DVD release of two poignant war documentaries—Murder in Normandy and Forced March to Freedom.
Murder in Normandy lays out the events of a little-known brutal war crime committed by the infamous SS Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth) against Canadian prisoners of war during the Battle of Normandy. This is the story of how 145 young POWs were murdered in cold blood and why Canada's first ever war crimes trial did so little to redress those deaths. Using both documentary and dramatic techniques, the program examines exactly what type of heinous behaviour is condoned during the heat of battle and poses the larger and more universal question of whether or not guilt in the matter of war crimes is determined by the victor. Winner of the Silver Screen Award for History at the 2001 US International Film and Video Festival.
(1999, 91 minutes)
Forced March to Freedom tells the story of ten thousand WWII POWs who anticipated liberation courtesy of the advancing Russian Red Army. These hopes were dashed when the Nazis forced the prisoners to march out of Stalag Luft III in the dead of winter toward the center of a collapsing Third Reich. This amazing test of endurance is shown through the eyes of Robert Buckham, a bomber pilot and artist who produced countless sketches and watercolors of prison camp life, as well as one of the only chronicles of the forced march itself. Interviews with Buckham and other POWs accentuate the sketches of camp life and the few actual photographs of the march known to exist.
(2001, 70 minutes)
Murder in Normandy and Forced March to Freedom will each be available on DVD at the Paperny Films online store beginning November 11, 2009.
