Spurred On
01/09/2017Description
Spurred On is an interactive documentary following NZ actor Dean O'Gorman to Passchendaele, the site of New Zealand's darkest day in WW1. Dean sets out to understand what it was really like to fight through Belgium, and uncover his personal connections to those young men buried in Passchendaele’s mud.
About
The darkest days for two nations commemorate the horror of October 1917. A hundred years from the Allied campaign at Passchendaele, renowned actors Dean O’Gorman (New Zealand) and RH Thompson (Canada) return to the deadly fields to find traces of family and rediscover the reality of war.
The NZ attack toward Bellevue Spur on October 12th lasted just a few hours, cost 843 NZ lives and severely wounded another two and a half thousand men. John O’Gorman is among those men lost in the mud on the worst day in NZ history.
Canadian forces began their two-week push on October 26th, finally advancing less than 1km to gain the famous ‘ridge’. 15,654 Canadian casualties included three thousand killed. RH’s great-uncle George Stratford was hit by a shell on top of Bellevue Spur.
Personal journeys from different corners of the globe make Spurred On a rich and emotional new documentary. Interactive content is on online from October 4th via Stuff.co.nz, SpurredOn.nz and SpurredOn.ca
