Tomorrow, Saturday, Nov. 11 marks Veterans' Day, a national holiday originally instituted as Armistice Day in remembrance of the official close of World War One, which ended at 11:00 a.m. on November 11, 1918. Of the 51 verified veterans of that war still living throughout the world, there are currently only fourteen surviving American servicemen. Twelve others have already passed away in this incomplete calendar year, while Wisconsin's final surviving veteran of the Great War passed at the end of 2005.
Earlier this year, a Chicago-based film student shot a short film in Shawano for his studies titled The Doughboy, depicting a brief moment of one fictional soldier's experiences in what looks like the Meuse-Argonne Offensive at the end of the war.
The student-made short film follows below.
Here is the film's description:
A short film depicting a young soldier adrift in a nightmarish WWI landscape, cut off from his fellows and forgotten in the post-battlefield chaos. He encounters the enemy and for a moment the two individuals remember their humanity but in the end fate is inescapable for the doughboy.
This 16mm short was made by Derek Hanson, a student of Columbia College Chicago, and met requirements for the course "Sound Film Production" instructed by Tony Agnew. This cut represents a work in progress that has become a continuing exercise in sound design and editing. Filmed on location in Shawano, Wisconsin. Enjoy!
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