Q&A with Chris Dennett, founder of We Will Remember

Tell me about the background to We Will Remember - what was the driver for creating it?  

• It’s very interesting to reflect on the past 4 years to compare my mindset then to how it is today. It was a multitude of factors.

You could say there was an innate desire to do this as I was fortunate to grow up with a direct link to the history. My great grandfather was killed in action just prior to the Battle of Monte Cassino. My widowed great grandmother was a London Blitz survivor (she eventually remarried my Polish ‘step-great grandfather’ who fled the Soviets) and her sister-in-law was a stenographer at the Nuremberg Trials. It was only natural that growing up, I was raised on these very emotionally-charged stories.

A particularly poignant artefact was the KIA letter my grandmother received, stained by her tears.

But despite loss and being bombed out of her home, she still looked back on those years as some of the best in her life. I suppose my young mind battled to reconcile the seismic drama of the time and it’s stayed with me ever since.

·         Another factor was time. I was driving through the deserts of Namibia, for a travelogue we were filming, alone with my thoughts. As these epiphanies go, I suddenly became acutely aware of just how little time we had remaining with this generation. Beyond museums or specific documentaries, I wasn’t convinced enough was being done to ensure their testimonies would remain for perpetuity. Call it a creative spark, I made a commitment to contribute towards rectifying that upon my return.

 ·         The other factor, which may surprise you, was the political climate. I don’t think it’s controversial to say that we seem to live in very divided times. As someone whose academic career has depended on balanced judgement across multiple angles or viewpoints, I find the lack of nuance or open dialogue in society today extremely concerning.

When I look to the WW2 generation, I see people whose lives were irrevocably changed when division amongst humanity reached cataclysmic proportions. I believe there is invaluable wisdom in the reflections they have for future generations, that can help us steer a better course.

 I love the phrase you use on your website – ‘Without understanding the past, how can we build a better future?’ With this in mind, what do you think is the best way of connecting with the next generation?  

It’s a huge challenge that any storyteller, director, producer, marketer, etc is up against.

You have to make your subject relatable. In We Will Remember’s case, it became obvious that the age gap between a millennial and a centenarian often appeared insurmountable.  So I needed to bridge that gap by helping people realise that these people were the same age when they went through it.

You have to appeal to someone’s empathic ability. History is much more than dates and acronyms, which is sometimes how the less-inclined perceive it. The clue’s in the very word: history. And the amazing thing about history is that these stories actually happened. They can be made tangible by locations, artifacts, media, etc. You can help people experience them.

 Lastly, you have to present your subject in a way that is digestible in a digital world that has so much noise.

From a historical perspective, where’s the most interesting place you’ve been to on your travels? 

Another tough one. I’ll shortlist a few:

 ·         Most poignant: Cassino, Italy, where I made the pilgrimage to my great-grandfather’s grave for the first time in 2017.

·         Most interesting: Sekigahara, Japan, a former battlefield in which over 30,000 people lost their lives in just 6-8 hours to define the future of feudal-era Japan.

·         Most humbling: Spitzkoppe, Namibia, millions of years of granite that retains paintings from the Khoi San people who nomadically lived there. 

Plans for the future… what presenting/documentary plans have got coming up? 

I was recently in pre-production for a series on Dunkirk, and plans to cover the Sardine Run in South Africa have kicked back into gear.

But now my eyes are well and truly set on Oceania.

The short-term future of our world hinges on the Pacific of which more than a few flashpoints have appeared. But this region also holds fascinating millennia-old stories and complex cultures. 

South African Syd Ireland who was interviewed in Cape Town in 2019 by Chris. Syd's a veteran from both El Alameins.