Public TV Stations Across the Nation To Show UMass Documentary on WWI Ambulance Drivers, ‘Model T’s to War’
Sept. 17, 2009
| Contact: | Elizabeth Wilda 413/545-2501 |
AMHERST, Mass. –A locally produced historical documentary, “Model T’s to War: American Ambulances on the Western Front 1914-1918,” made by University of Massachusetts Amherst filmmakers will be seen by a national audience in the coming months, as 88 of the 142 public television licenses in the United States recently opted to include the hour-long program in their fall lineups.
It first aired on Thursday, March 5, 2009, on WGBY, Channel 57 in Springfield, the Public Broadcasting Service affiliate in western Massachusetts.
The film, the fourth documentary produced by this team, was produced by Ed Klekowski, an emeritus professor at UMass Amherst with camerawoman and editor Elizabeth Wilda of the UMass Amherst Office of News and Media Relations, and Libby Klekowski. The program was picked up by an impressive 66 percent of potential stations, says Ed Klekowski, well over the minimum number of “yes” votes required by American Public Television to offer the program nationally.
“I’m personally really thrilled by this news because I love to teach,” he says. “This means our film could well reach an audience in the hundreds of thousands of viewers, and that’s a very large classroom!”
The documentary tells the little-known stories of American volunteer ambulance drivers who served during World War I on the Western Front in France from 1914–18. Driving Model T’s modified to accommodate stretchers, the young volunteers, many of them college students, evacuated the wounded from Verdun and other key battlefields after the United States entered the war in 1917.
Shot by Wilda on location in France in high definition, the film illustrates the stunning contrast between peace and war using images of devastation from the war years along with views of today’s lush green countryside. But as Ed Klekowski reveals on camera, many dangerous war artifacts remain in place just beneath the surface at many battle sites, including unexploded shells, barbed wire entanglements, gun platforms, tunnels and trenches.
The film’s narration includes readings and memoirs that eloquently share first-hand accounts of life amid war from 1914–18. Gilbert McCauley, Julian Olf, Julie K. Nelson and Timothy Howd from the UMass Amherst theater department are among the readers who give dramatic performances in the program. Kenneth Irwin, known for his jazz show on WMUA, the UMass student radio station, narrates the documentary.
Ed Klekowski researched and wrote the script for “Model T’s to War” while Wilda filmed and edited it. Libby Klekowski organized the historical research. The Florence Gould Foundation, the University of Massachusetts Amherst Alumni Association and WGBY all contributed to the funding of this film.
Contact: Elizabeth Wilda, 413/545-2501 or wilda@oit.umass.edu
Ed Blaguszewski, 413/545-0444 or edblag@admin.umass.edu
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