As I struggle through the Festival Season for my film Iron Crotch and the pile of rejection I received, I decided I needed to start another project rather than glaring at the Film Freeway page all day. I’ve had three potential projects kicking around my brain for a while. One is a long series about the foundation of Yosemite as a National Park. There are a lot of great stories in the early years of Yosemite that get obscured by the mythos surrounding the park. I’d like to make a story about the burning of the custom house in Dublin during the Irish War for Independence. The fact that makes me want to tell that tale is the Dublin Fire Brigade was complicit in the arson and their names are memorialized in front of the building today. Who wouldn’t want a story of firemen not fighting fires?
I’ve opted for the third tale. I want to turn my grandfather’s story of his time fighting in World War 2. He was a member of the 57th Fighter Group, 64th Fighter Squadron and he participated in action all across North Africa, Sicily and Italy. The story of those battles isn’t really talked about much. Everyone likes to concentrate on the battle for Europe but the battles in North Africa helped set the stage for those that came later. And even if you do hear about the African Campaign, it is mostly from the Western End, not the battles in Egypt, where my Grandfather fought. I think it would be good to add a little information to the public record. Sure, there is my Grandfather’s book, The Black Scorpions, but I want to make a documentary to give some context to where his book takes place. Maybe two documentaries.
There is a natural dividing line in his book. First, the Black Scorpions fight in Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia ending with a climactic battle in the skies over Cape Bon where all the members of the 57th destroyed almost 79 planes. 79 is the most planes destroyed in a single engagement in the entire war. The second half of the story takes place in Sicily and Italy. The pace changes. The planes change. But again, there is another climactic event where the Group destroys a retreating Herman Göring division. We shall see if two films come out of this. I am definitely starting on one.
