The crew posing after the session

A small group of us, some coming from Connecticut and New Jersey, were at the CUNY Graduate Center this morning for the first of our film shoots to make the WW1 documentary we are producing. We are making a 15-20 minute film in which we interview the family of a World War One doughboy and a veteran of one of our nation’s contemporary campaigns. Our subject today was Thomas Michael Tobin, an extraordinary man from Yonkers who served as a first lieutenant and was stationed at St. Nazaire for more than a year. After the war he was engaged in civic and cultural affairs for decades. He also raised five sons, all of whom went on to make their own contributions, as both soldiers and sailors in WW2 and in their professional careers. This morning we interviewed two of Lieutenant Tobin’s grandchildren on camera and spoke to a third for background. All had many insights on the man’s life and times.

Three of Lieutenant Tobin’s grandchildren

I was a little nervous going in, not knowing if we would be able to pull it off. Still, we had planned it out fairly well beforehand; it is amazing how doing the advanced prep work pays off come time. It helps also to collaborate with talented and insightful people who bring so much to what they do. I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed the session.

One day when I was attending graduate school I mentioned in class that the authors of both the books we had read that week had both emphasized that they had been college students in 1968, that year in our nation’s history when the world seemed to be falling apart. To my astonishment the professor asked “What happened in 1968?”

That little vignette came back to me earlier today when I came across the documentary short that Chuck Braverman produced for the The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in early 1969. I had not seen this in many years. One can draw many lessons from Braverman’s minor classic. The one I will draw on here, after our divisive election season, is that the world has always been troubled but that, whatever one believes or wherever one falls on the spectrum, the world is not grinding to a halt. From Harding in 1920 calling for a return to normalcy after the Great War, the influenza epidemic and the riots of 1919; to FDR’s first inaugural in 1933; to JFK’s January 1961 message about being disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, our nation has gone through anxieties of many varieties before today’s times. Breath deep and take in Chuck Braverman’s brief history lesson.

Men of the 165th Depot Brigade on movie night, which may also have included live entertainment performed by the troops themslves

I have spent part of the week researching a project we are hoping will come to fruition this coming Sunday at Governors Island. In my digging I came across this semi-related image of African-American troops taking in a movie at Camp Travis in 1917. It is fascinating on several levels but one thing I find interesting is how aware the entire room is that they are being photographed for posterity. One sees the same phenomenon in pictures of Civil War troops, though in that era photography was still in its infancy. I am guessing that as late as 1917 photography seemed novel to these men. I cannot help but wonder what movies–certainly silent pictures–they would have watched. The original caption hints that in addition to any films being screened there was probably a variety-night aspect to these types of affairs. As a depot brigade these men likely did not see combat in France, but performed the crucial–and back-breaking–function of logistics and supply.

(image/Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library. “Movies!’ Building No.1, Army Y.M.C.A., Camp Travis, Texas.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1917. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e2-08cb-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99)

A 1914 Belgian Minerva crew similar to those depicted in Cafard

I ventured to Queens on the N Train today to catch a screening of Cafard. This animated film depicts the Great War as experienced by a group of Belgian friends and family. The protagonist is Jean Mordant, who we see winning the 1914 world wrestling championship in Buenos Aires at the same moment his fifteen year old daughter home in Ostend is raped by a group of German soldiers at a checkpoint. Eager for revenge Mordant enlists in the Belgian ACM, or armoured car division. As the war grinds on his service takes him literally around the world through various parts of Russia, Mongolia, China, San Fransisco and New York. The war’s reach is sometimes lost on us today, probably because we think of globalization as a twenty-first century phenomenon.

The film logs in at just over ninety minutes. I found the film worthwhile but sometimes a little strained and overdone. Still, I suppose it is okay to be a little overwrought when depicting something as tragic as the Great War. In an animated feature there is also more leeway to exaggerate for effect. One thing I liked about the film is that it captured the world wide reach of the conflict, especially in its handling of the Russian Revolution and its consequences. The film does a good job of showing how easy it is for individuals to get tangled in events bigger than themselves, and how little control a person has in that situation. It is a very unsettling notion. Cafard is not for the faint of heart but if one is looking for a contemporary film that depicts the First World War through both a narrow and wide lens this is a good one to check out. With all its tragedy, it even ends on a hopeful note.