Presented by SERKET USA in cooperation with The WWII Foundation. Featuring Easy Company "Band of Brothers" veterans Al Mampre, Ed "Doc" Pepping, Frank Perconte, and Herb Suerth, Jr. Also featuring Trey Harris, Tim Gray, and Governor Tom Ridge. Filmed on location in Los Angeles, CA; Chicago, IL; Paris, France; and Normandy, France. The monument dedication ceremony was filmed just outside Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, Manche, on June 6, 2012, the 68th anniversary of D-Day.
Client: SERKET USA
Project Title: Returning to Normandy: The Richard D. Winters Leadership Monument Project
Services Rendered:
- Scriptwriting
- Transcription
- On Location Production
- Video Editing
- Photo Editing
- Dynamic Text & Graphics
- 3D Animation & Compositing
- Original Music
- Sound Editing & Mixing
- HD Online Deliverables
Director's Statement -- June 6, 2013 -- Today is the 69th anniversary of D-Day. A year ago today, I stood just outside Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, Manche, in Normandy, France, and captured to video the unveiling of the Richard D. Winters Leadership Monument.
I've spent a year now working on the short documentary Returning to Normandy and as I sit here preparing its world premiere, I must admit that this project has rewarded me greatly, in many, many different ways: from the countries it's taken me to, to the new friends I've made. The single greatest reward that I am taking away from this project, however, is reverence. Reverence for our veterans. Reverence for the soldiers who volunteered. Reverence for the men who risked their lives, and gave their lives, for that hard-won, yet incredibly fragile thing we call freedom.
It's not that I didn't greatly respect them before, but it doesn't matter how many Band of Brothers books that you read, or Saving Private Ryan films that you watch, when you walk the still-scarred earth of Pointe du Hoc, touch the sands of Utah and Omaha Beach, and walk the hallowed grounds of the Normandy American Cemetery it changes you, it rips thankful tears from your eyes, it makes the sacrifices of our Greatest Generation wholly tangible.
To say that this project and the absolute experience of creating, directing, producing, and shepherding this project has left an indelible impression upon me would be a profound, staggering understatement. To our veterans -- all of our veterans -- both past and present, I offer a humble, yet entirely sincere and heartfelt THANK YOU. And to all those soldiers that never made it home: may God bless you and keep you.
