WW1’S FIRST Frontline Cameraman

Geoffrey Herbert Malins is the first war ‘kinematographer’ in history. The documentary he shot during the Battle of the Somme drew over 20 million British viewers in 1916. For years controversy has raged around the film due to its disconcerting violence and overt propagandist agenda,. Now, new research has proven that most of the scenes are indeed a real minute-by-minute record of the most disastrous battle in British military history. The film is a reflexion on the history of cinema and the ability to document historical events on film.