1-World Festival of Foreign Films
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"Desert Victory"
1943
Directed by Roy Boulting

This historic documentary offers a dramatic account of the Allied Forces' victory over Rommel's troops in North Africa. Directed by British filmmaking veteran Roy Boulting, with footage taken by members of the Army Film and Photographic Unit as well as captured German film, this much honored film is a remarkable document of one of the turning points of World War II. The filming was done under the most severe battle conditions--four cameramen were killed, six were wounded and seven were captured. The esteemed artist and critic Manny Farber called Desert Victory "…that rare thing, a perfect movie." The film won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature of 1943. Also included is Cameramen at War (1943), a 15-minute celebration of the achievements of battlefield photographers, compiled by pioneering animator Len Lye. Footage taken from Dunkirk to Ethiopia is combined with glimpses of the cameramen who risked life and limb to capture these images of war.  62 minutes.