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THE UNTOLD STORY: FORGING THE ANZAC TRADITION With a cast of thousands - 72,000 would be killed, 23,000 were blown to pieces – and would be Known Only To God It is said that the first casualty of war is the truth. This film attempts to regain that lost ground by presenting in an uncompromising manner the facts and detail of the ANZACS involvement in the "Great War" on the Western Front. To us, the ANZACS are the Australians AND New Zealanders who made up the acronym. If Gallipoli is the birthplace of the Anzac acronym, then the Western Front is where the Anzac legend grew up, stood tall and cemented their place in international history; and in our hearts. "The Untold Story" is an entertaining, informative, educational and eye opening account of our history by award-winning filmmaker Lt Alan Young, himself a World War 2 Anzac and wounded Korean War veteran. His own father was twice decorated for bravery on the Western Front. This film was in Alan - waiting to get out! Five times the number of men died on the Western Front than at the disastrous Gallipoli diversion. Yet many Australasians know very little of the sacrifice, bravery and sheer blood, guts and determination that not only helped shape the Anzac tradition, but win the war and allow the great countries of Australia and New Zealand to prosper and develop into what we are today. FORGING THE ANZAC TRADITION is a nine part three-hour, $2.5 million (a figure based on DVAs Australians at War) honest attempt IN 2008 to celebrate the 90th anniversary of these fantastic achievements made so far from home. With over 2 hours of original World War 1 footage, combined with hundreds of photos and detailed maps, this nine part series delves honestly and deeply into this momentous time in our history that turned two colonies into great nations. The film contains: a. Over two hours of original black and white World War 1 film - plus many coloured maps showing every battle; b. Hundreds of black & white photographs that are endorsed by four speciality commentators (authors and professors) from Australia, Canada and NZ; c. No actors, other then the very real Anzacs, are involved in this film. Current colour film was shot in Australia, Belgium, France, Germany & New Zealand. d. The film also relates that the Australian achievements were made possible, not alone, but by their association with the British, Canadians and Kiwis – a fact largely forgotten in OZ, but is an undeniable part of The Untold Story. The film has NOT found the interest of either Federal Minister of Veterans Affairs, or their historians as the film is bi-partisan ANZAC – which, to us, means Australia – New Zealand – Army – Corps. This concept is not accepted by DVA historians who refute any statistic that includes Kiwis. No assistance has come from either the Federal, Victorian, WA or NZ governments – NOT even ONE photo After refusals by two Federal and Australia’s top 100 corporations, the Young family, wife and two sons provided the majority of the funding. In a country literally awash with money we can only believe that these people simply do NOT care about the memory of those magnificent ANZACS. Have We Forgotten - one might ask? Yet, the Federal government has no problem, annually, in paying out 285 million on illegal public service “sickies”, led by the Dept of Veterans Affairs? Audited film profits have been assigned to Kyneton, Vic, RSL sub-branch and to be used to foster high school student travel to the European WW1 battlefields. |