Written by
David Fennario
Presented by Sally Nelson
Special Guest cameo Charlie
Chaplin
Alec G. Macleod, Director
Hyman Glustein, Producer
Patrick Barnard, Producer
Réné Sioui Labelle, Camera
Gabrielle Pépin, Sound
Yurij Luhovy, Editor
Produced by Outswork Films, an RTS Canada affiliate
"…here we are in another war, getting ourselves killed for no good stupid reason at all... and well, I decided that I'd do this show for the guys over in Afghanistan, based on the interview I did with Rosie all those years ago…."
David Fennario
Audio excerpt: Reporter Jerry Nines meets WW1 vet Rosie Rollins
Dedicated to Private Arthur Charles Degrasse shot for desertion, March 1919
(Extracts: Introduction)
I am sitting in the bar of the King Edward Hotel. On the walls, oldtime photos and momentos including a large portrait of the famous Lord Kitchener WW1 recruiting poster.
Facing Kitchener is a poster of Charlie Chaplin in the film "Shoulder Arms" and the TV set above the shelf running a report of Rememberance Day ceremonies in Ottawa, with Stephen Harper making the usual clichés about the Glorious Dead before laying a wreath. I just told the waiter to turn it down, enough of that bullshit, right? Thought you would agree with me on that.
How many Canadian soldiers dead in Afghanistan now? Yeah, too many.
I'm in my 20's, a freelance reporter working on a human interest story for the Montreal Gazoo, Rememberance Day, 1977, taking in the ceremonies at the Cenotaph memorial in Dominion Square with two minutes of silence and then the 21 boom, boom, boom ..
David Fennario, 2007