Victoria filmmaker's 5-year, cross-country journey interviewing Canada's remaining WWII vets
CTV
Eric Brunt was a UBC film student in 2016 when his grandfather died at the ripe old age of 95.
Eric Brunt was a UBC film student in 2016 when his grandfather died at the ripe old age of 95.
Clifford Brunt was a Second World War veteran, but his grandson didn’t know much about his service. It inspired Brunt to do a school project interviewing other local veterans.
”It was 10 men to begin with in Vancouver and Victoria. And I fell in the love with the process of being welcomed into their homes and into their lives,” said Brunt, who now lives in Montreal and works for Melki Films.
Since those first interviews in 2016, the project has grown to include 507 Second World War veterans from all across Canada.
“The final end product, all my interviews are going to be in the Canadian War Museum as part of their database, and this database is going to be accessible to the public for free. And they’re also going to create a digital exhibition using some of my work,” said Brunt, who is dropping off hard drives of the first 200 interviews at the war museum in Ottawa on Tuesday.
“Whatever they feel comfortable sharing with me, I view that as a little treasure of their story that needs to be preserved, and it’s my job and now the war museum’s job to keep that safe.”
While most Canadians pause to remember war veterans on Remembrance Day, Brunt has heard the stories of the men and women who served for the past five years.
