‘Skeletons In Their Closet’ to make its debut

Birmingham based Production Company, Definitely Red, has just put the finishing touches to a harrowing film, which documents the lives of four Japanese Prisoners of War.
The film, eight years in the making, will be previewing at the Stratford Film Festival in October and has already received interest from the History Channel, the Imperial War Museum and Walsall Art Gallery.
Entitled ‘Skeletons in their Closet’ the film takes a morbidly fascinating look at the lives of the men dubbed the forgotten soldiers, who were captured in Singapore during the Second World War and were put to work on the Burma railway.
The film uses a mixture of interviews and animation to tell the tale of a war fraught with mistakes and the government cover up that ensued.
The animation used was hand drawn using ink and twigs, a method used by prisoners of war during their captivity, and beautifully illustrates diary extracts and poetry written by the soldiers.
The interviews featured in the film are with the four remaining soldiers from the Fifth and Sixth, Royal Norfolk’s, 53rd Brigade, who were captured in 1942 and remained imprisoned for three and a half years.
Research for the film began in 1994 in Norfolk, with the first animatic produced in 1997. Work was resumed last year with the first of the cells drawn in 2004. Over 8000 cells were drawn in total for 10 minutes of animation and were filmed using a Sony Z1 HDV camera and a Data Video SF4.
The film is now complete and will be showcased on the Creative Channel Network later in the year.
(GB)