FIELD PUNISHMENT NO.1’ – a new movie that links to our research.

Disobedience and Rebellion of Soldiers and the Treatment of Conscientious Objectors in the First World War in France and New Zealand – a comparative historical study. La désobéissance et la rébellion des soldats et le traitement des objecteurs de conscience dans la Première Guerre mondiale en France et en Nouvelle-Zélande - une étude historique comparée.

As part of the research partnership between Baradene College of the Sacred Heart in Auckland and students from the Lycée Professionnel Gay-Lussac, Chauny, France we are looking at the fourteen conscientious objectors who were sent to the Western Front during the First World War. Once in France and Belgium they were subjected to punishments in order to break their will to resist conscription. One of the punishments they were given was called Field Punishment No.1 (Known to soldiers as ‘the Crucifixion’.)

A movie called ‘FIELD PUNISHMENT NO.1’ screens for the first time on TVOne on Tuesday 22nd April (that's Easter Tuesday).

The movie has been made by a New Zealand production company called Lippy Pictures.

On their website they have a ‘trailer’ video clip for the movie which is interesting to watch.

http://www.lippypictures.com/index.php?page=field-punishment-no1

This clip is also on the Vimeo website;

http://vimeo.com/70921355#at=0

The website of Lippy Pictures describes the film as follows;

FIELD PUNISHMENT NO.1

The First World War gave rise to New Zealand’s first “conscientious objectors”, men who stood out against the jingoism of the day and declared their opposition to a war fought thousands of miles away and for which New Zealand men were conscripted, many against their will.

This is the story of the fourteen of those men who were arrested and shipped off to war against their will, where on the battlefields and military prisons of Britain and France they were stigmatised and tortured in an attempt to break their spirit. New Zealand’s most famous conscientious objector Archibald Baxter, father of James K. Baxter, was one of these men.

We follow the conchies' journey from their initial proud stance when first arrested, through their time spent in prisons, punishment camps, an asylum for the insane and at the Front Line in France, until the end of the war heralds their return to New Zealand. But not all of the fourteen returned home.

Made with the assistance of TVNZ and NZOA’s Platinum Fund.

International distribution by Content Media Corp.