October 5, 2010

Columbia, South Carolina, Monday, September 20, 2010

Craig Horn, North Carolina Churchillians, Ken Childs, Bernard Baruch Chapter (South Carolina), co-chairmen of the 27th International Churchill Conference, March 24-26, 2011, in Charleston, SC, and Judy Kambestad, Churchillians of Southern California, and Conference Manager, met with Greg Wilsbacher, Curator, Newsfilm Collections, Moving Image Research Collection (MIRC), and staff at the University of South Carolina to preview the first pass at editing newsreels. Judy Kambestad had edited nine hours of film, most of it ‘historic’ or unedited and unseen outtakes, down to two hours. Footage includes Churchill speaking on India in 1931. 1942 includes a speech to workers with Clementine and Mary Churchill in Yorkshire; arriving home by plane from Russia and the Far East; later trip in Moscow; and in Dover with General Smuts. 1943 includes Casablanca; partial speech to U.S. Congress; North Africa; Canada; Mary Churchill (The Lady Soames, LG, DBE) at Ft Oglethorpe, Georgia, USA visiting WACs base; Honorary Degree at Harvard; Tehran; watching paratroopers; and Mary Churchill, Second Subaltern, British Auxiliary Territorial Service, christening a US bomber with Coca Cola. In 1944 Churchill, Clementine and Mary watch a ‘buzz’ bomb demonstration. Portions of the one-hour silent outtakes of unseen D-Day Normandy landings by the Canadian and British armed forces will be used at the end of the DVD.

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It was decided at this meeting to edit the film to 45 minutes for the gift DVD for conference registrants, and a 30-minute DVD for classroom use. Select footage of all the newsreels will be shown during the conference, including both silent and Movietone Newsreels as shown in theaters made from the silent footage. This historic footage is drawn from USC’s Fox Movietone News Collection, which includes rarely or never before seen materials from newsreel and armed forces cameramen. The gift DVD, done in Ken Burns’ style with narration, subtitles, and music, will never be sold. There will be a conference edition only for registrants. USC/MIRC maintains the copyrights and is partnering with the Churchill Centre to produce this DVD.

Conference registration will be on the website November 1, 2010. See the Calendar of Events for details.

©Photo Courtesy of USC/MIRC Movietone Newsreel