How I Filmed the Great War

The Western Front of World War I saw some of the first major steps in a newly founded tradition – the war documentary. Known as “kinematographers,” these men braved the front lines – sometimes filming in shell holes and often mistaken for machine gun emplacements – to capture the war on film and bring it home to motion picture audiences. One of the most famous among them was Geoffrey H. Malins, cinematographer and editor of The Battle of the Somme. These are Malins’ experiences, in his own words. Illustrated with over 40 photographs, Malins takes us from one end of the Western Front to the other, on the ground and in the air. He tells of his adventures, the remarkable people he encounters, his near-misses, and the history he witnessed and committed to film for posterity. Thrilling and horrifying, How I Filmed the Great War is the amazing story of the man who faced the German army and the terrors of the Western Front – not with a rifle or a machine gun, but with a movie camera.