All Blacks at War

Project: Documentary
Role: Researcher, Writer, Director, Producer
Client: TVNZ and RNZ
Company: Homegrown Television

All Blacks at War came about because I happened to be in France twice in 2023. I found out that former All Black Andrew Mehrtens, MNZM was living in Paris so I asked him if he was up for some filming. He is quite the history buff it turns out with a university degree that saw him taking history papers, and he serendipitously happened to be free on the same days I was, so a doco was born. I found the connections these men have to people today and used that thread to make the story relevant to people today, as we hopped grave to grave. We involved the 2023 Rugby World Cup team, schools in New Zealand, former All Blacks playing in France, and people in Le Quesnoy - the northern French town that was liberated by Kiwi soldiers in WW I. We shared quite a few somber moments together at graves thinking about the lives (and deaths) of these brave men and the many others that surrounded them.

The resulting documentary on TVNZ and RNZ is a journey through time connected by the black jersey. 52 former All Blacks served in World War I, with one in four of them never returning. The circumstances these 13 men faced are explained on camera by the hugely knowledgeable military historian Dr Christopher Pugsley, ONZM.

With no public funding the documentary was a self funded passion project as well as being supported by two philanthropists who are key funders of New Zealand Liberation Museum - Te Arawhata in France. I supplied a cut down piece that plays in a part of the NZ WW I museum that has a display about the WW I All Blacks.