The Cabinet of Living Cinema is delighted to announce an award from Heritage Lottery Fund to create a living graphic novel about the First World War experiences of Hastings-born combatant Archie Belaney who signed up with the 13th Montreal Battalion: the Canadian Black Watch.
We have teamed up with the Hastings Museum & Art Gallery and Gateways to the First World War Engagement Centre to work with a group of volunteers aged 16-25 from Hastings Museum’s Young Curators and the De La Warr Pavilion group to research, “unpack” and interpret the experiences of Archie who disappeared from his life in Hastings to entirely adopt the life of a Canadian Native American fur-trapper and woodsman – including taking the name “Grey Owl” – before fighting in the trenches as a sniper.
The research, conducted with the help of Gateways to the First World War, will culminate in the creation of a living graphic novel exploring Archie’s experiences in the Trenches and life in Canada. This will be screened with a live score by the Cabinet of Living Cinema at the museum and at Gulbenkian, Canterbury (University of Kent), in early 2019, with screenings followed by a Q & A panel featuring volunteers, the Cabinet and the animation team (Julia de Graaf, illustrator, and Tom Brown, animator). The film and score will be available online and as part of the Hastings Museum & Art Gallery’s permanent collection.
http://thecabinetoflivingcinema.org.uk/project/grey-owl-on-the-western-front/
Images reproduced with permission of Cabinet of Living Cinema.
