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'Shooters': An interview with James O'Regan
By Peter Dudley
March 8, 2006
Two weeks before Christmas 2005, Ottawa filmmaker James O’Regan presented Canadian veterans and their families with a gift – his film about the Canadian Army Film Unit, entitled Shooters.
Addressing a small crowd of about 60 people in the Barney Danson Theatre in the new Canadian War Museum, Mr. O’Regan, 53, spoke passionately about his 49-minute film and his efforts to complete it in time for Year of the Veteran.
Mr. O’Regan stumbled upon the project by chance, when several years earlier, he attended a dinner that would have a major impact on his life.
"The story of the Canadian Army Film Unit (CAFU) was unsung,” said Mr. O’Regan. “About seven or eight years ago, my family and I were attending a flak artillery battery reunion dinner and on the table was an honour roll and in it was a story about my father finding a can of film on Juno beach on D-Day and getting it back to the beach commander. And it was the iconic film of that day – the landing craft with the doors opening. And I said: ‘That’s a great story, how come I never knew that?’” Mr. O’Regan recalled.
“At that time I realized that we know a lot about the war, but we don’t know a lot about how it was documented,” he said.
CAFU was formed in 1941. Comprised of enlisted men and women, its objectives were to film Canadian troops in action and supply the Department of National Defence (DND) and media outlets with theatrical newsreels and still photographs.
As it turned out, Mr. O’Regan’s father, Brian, was a gunner who became a motorcycle dispatch rider for the unit.
“I felt there was something here to be investigated further,” said Mr. O’Regan. Once I got my Dad talking, my brother and I decided to go over to France with him, get a local camera crew and film him telling these stories at the actual spots. He thought that was a good idea. So I started to put something together to pitch it. Then my Dad caught a spot of cancer and died in February 1999,” he said.
Unfortunately, Mr. O’Regan does not have any on-camera interviews with his father.
Undeterred, Mr. O’Regan immersed himself in researching the history of the CAFU and pitched his documentary film idea to Canadian television. As is the case for many a Canadian filmmaker, he could not get any broadcaster to commit to the project (which would have helped trigger the flow of money).
“DND was interested in the story (because of the heritage value) and they were trying to find a way to help me with their own operations, but every time they thought they had a solution, (then finance minister) Paul Martin would cut $400 million out of DND’s budget,” said Mr. O’Regan.
That meant Mr. O’Regan’s film kept getting pushed a little further down the list of priorities for DND.
“Eventually, Bill Grant, who shot the D-Day footage and Ken Bell who shot the colour D-Day footage, died on me,” said Mr. O’Regan.
Using his own money, as well as money borrowed from his family, Mr. O’Regan began to film the surviving members of the unit who he could afford to travel to. He was able to locate the survivors because the unit had held a reunion in 1986, which Brian O'Regan had attended; and because Brian O'Regan had kept addresses and phone numbers of the members.
Mr. O’Regan interviewed four members of the unit for Shooters, including Charles “Bud” Roos – the first Allied cameraman to set foot on the beach on D-Day. Sadly, Mr. Roos died on February 8, 2006.
Mr. O’Regan was able to get footage of the unit from DND without charge. He wanted to use other newsreel footage, but could not afford to pay for it.
“Stock footage is $25 US per second and I used a lot of seconds,” he said.
Library and Archives Canada helped him out with research and provided him with video footage of the unit’s first production – Wood for War.
Included in Mr. O'Regan's documentary is Bill Grant's stunning footage of Canadian soldiers disembarking the landing craft on Juno Beach. The sequence, which captures two winds of the hand-cranked Eymo 35mm newsreel camera (approximately two minutes running time) is one of several CAFU scoops that were shown around the world.
What is equally amazing is how the world ever got to see the film in the first place.
“My Dad (who was 19 years old on D-Day) was pushing his motorcycle off the landing craft and up on the beach,” recalled Mr. O’Regan. “As he approached the seawall, he noticed this can of film in the sand. He knew what it was because he was trained. It was exposed film because it had tape around it and it had Grant number one written on it. Not finding either Bill Grant or the press bag, he took the film back to the beach commander who put it on the next boat back to London and it was in the war office by 1 p.m. That was the first film back from Normandy. If you look at the war record at the Archives, the talk is there were “whoops and cheers” at the sight of that film,” said Mr. O’Regan.
“It is a remarkable piece of film. Whenever we see something about D-Day we only see the shot of the landing craft’s door opening, and that’s about six seconds,” he added.
For Mr. O’Regan, there were “whoops and cheers” when DND and an Ottawa post-production house – General Assembly – agreed to help him out with finishing the film.
“Every step was a challenge,” said Mr. O’Regan. “This should not have taken seven years. I could not find the people to support it. In January 2004, I showed a rough cut to the current army news team in Ottawa and DND then committed to seeing that the film was completed in post.”
Mr. O’Regan wanted to use Takin’ Care of Business from Bachman-Turner Overdrive and Flip, Flop and Fly from Downchild Blues Band in Shooters. He obtained permission from the musicians but not the music publishers. Andrew Hugget from General Assembly scored the film for him.
Despite finally having a finished product, he could not get Shooters into any film festivals. Another problem was finding a Canadian service provider to make DVDs on demand. He ended up going with the U.S. company CustomFlix.
DVDs are also available from the boutique at the Canadian War Museum. To date, he has sold 56 copies.
Shooters has had some television exposure but not enough to turn a profit.
Mr. O’Regan soldiers on despite carrying a significant debt load.
In addition to working as an actor, writer, producer and director, he is currently doing non-film related work in Ottawa to pay off his film debts. He has an agent in Los Angeles trying to find a buyer for two of his feature comedy screenplays.
Regardless of what projects develop next, Mr. O’Regan is proud of his film. It is a moving portrait of the men who shot both still and moving images of Canadians in action in the Second World War. Those survivors of CAFU who have seen the film have praised it and Mr. O’Regan’s efforts to bring their story to life.
It is a good thing he worked so hard to tell their stories. All of the unit's camera original footage was destroyed in a fire at the National Film Board of Canada's Montreal office years ago. The only footage that remains consists of 16mm black and white prints of the 106 CAFU newsreels.
The newsreels tell the stories of Canadian troops at war, but Shooters describes the experiences of a small group of dedicated people behind the camera who risked their lives to get the stories out.
Links;
Shooters - An hour long documentary by James O'Regan
Buy the DVD!
peterdudley @ sympatico.ca
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