Duncan
Pickstock
TESTAMENT
The project is a study of those who have chosen
to fight not because they are compelled to by their country but because
they feel that morally they have no alternative. The subjects of the
films have all, over the last 70 years, chosen to risk their lives because
they felt it was the right thing to do. People like Bob Doyle who joined
the IRA as a 16 year old before making his way to Spain in 1936 to join
the fight against the fascist insurgency or Stuart Christie who, in
1964 as an 18 year old anarchist, travelled to Spain as part of an attempt
to assassinate General Franco. On arrival he was arrested and sentenced
to 20 years in prison for banditry. In the late 60’s and early
70’s The Angry Brigade carried out a series of bombings on the
British mainland. Banks, army barracks and the houses of government
ministers were all targeted. John Barker was arrested and accused with
others of being responsible. in The Angry Brigade Trial of 1972 he was
sentenced to 10 years for causing explosions. Lars Newbould was so outraged
at what he saw happening in The Balkans in the 1992 that he traveled
to Zagreb and joined The Croatian Army to fight The Serbs. These people
are not mercenaries, as they are not motivated by the money they could
earn, their motives were not so crass and are infinitely more difficult
to quantify.
These films are not war stories and have no dramatic tales of daring-do.
Instead I have tried to discover what it was that made these individuals
choose to take action when so many others choose not to. What makes
a person feel so strongly about something that they voluntarily put
themselves in harms way in defense of it. These films are non-partisan.
I take no side and I make no judgment about the rights and wrongs of
the conflicts these people have become involved with. That is not what
these visual documents are for. Rather, it is my hope that by listening
to these stories we will be able to make connections between the individuals
involved and the decisions they made and through those connections we
will perhaps achieve a better understanding of those who make the choice
to fight for something so much bigger than their
country.
view
images>
view
movies online>
e-invite>
www.duncanpickstock.co.uk
|