The archiveS
What began as a photography exhibition grew into a multi-year investigation into the work of Detachment ‘P’, a Signal Corps photo unit that documented the war in Europe from the front lines. New discoveries gradually revealed the depth and scope of their mission, image by image.
From Exhibition to Investigation
The genesis of this documentary was the filmmaker’s 2014 traveling exhibition and companion book THEY FIGHT WITH CAMERAS, WALTER ROSENBLUM IN WORLD WAR II FROM D-DAY TO DACHAU, (published in English by Postcart Edizioni, Rome, 20142014. in collaboration with Italian photography curator Manuela Fugenzi), which was on view in Vienna and Rome, with support from the American Embassy, then traveled to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Over the next nine years, the filmmakers discovered a significant amount of written and photographic material, including the bulk of Rosenblum’s wartime motion picture footage. This material supplied a wealth of detail and enough granularity to enable the creation of a documentary film about his wartime experiences.
Photo by Walter Rosenblum, Advance Guard Entering St. Lô, France, July 20, 1944
Piecing Together the Visual Record
The task of assembling the photographs and motion picture footage used in the film was a complex, multi-year endeavor utilizing the expertise of the archivists at the Still Picture Branch and Motion Picture Branch of the National Archives and Record Administration (NARA) who supplied the filmmakers with photographs, footage, and, crucially, their accompanying captions, without which it would not have been possible to contextualize the images or determine the identity of the photographers/cameramen who made them. Additional footage used in the film was supplied by commercial archive houses, principally CRITICAL PAST, FRAMEPOOL, and POND5.
Photo by Walter Rosenblum, "Reading a List of the Dead", Grandcamp Maisy, July 14, 1944
Ensuring Historical Accuracy
Throughout the production, veteran independent archival film, photo, and audio researcher Elisabeth M. Hartjens, CEO of Imagefinders, Inc., worked closely with the filmmakers and the archivists at the National Archives and Records Administration (N.A.R.A.), to locate photographs and footage shot by Rosenblum and other members of Detachment ‘P’.
Historical consultants James Holland and Dr. Jennifer Putnam have thoroughly vetted the film for accuracy.
Funeral, Grandcamp-Maisy, Normandy, July 14, 1944. Photograph by Walter Rosenblum
Photo by Walter Rosenblum, GI and French Housewife Doing Laundry. Trévières, France, July 18, 1944