Oscar-Winning Documentary “Moscow Strikes Back” – WW2 History: 1943 To 2010
May 9 marked the 65th anniversary of the end of the Great Patriotic War. The Victory Day has always been very special in my family growing up. We were fortunate and none of my family passed away in that war, but the pain and the suffering that engulfed the nation hit so hard that six and a half decades later, we still feel it.. of course, myself being the third generation survivor, I know it from the accounts of others, but this intangible legacy is inherited, it is almost inbred.
This year around May 9, I came across the footage that I never knew existed. A documentary titled "Moscow Strikes Back" was shot in October 1941 and documented one the bloodiest and most pivotal points in WW2 - the Battle of Moscow. The movie received an Oscar at the 15th Academy Awards ceremony in 1943, half a world a way in the sunny Los Angeles where the ravaging war on the Eastern front was but a concept on the movie screen. A unifying thread, the movie symbolized an era when the US and the USSR were still allies, fighting against the same evil.
Here is an excerpt:
After watching the movie, I did some digging to find out more about the people behind the footage. It turns out the Soviet Union had 258 wartime videographers. Of them, every second one was injured, every forth - was killed. Collectively, they shot 3.5 million meters of tape, every centimeter of which had to be torn from the grip of death.
But, how much has changed? Thinking of dozens of reporters and cameramen dying on the front lines around the world every year, I think we ought to give more respect to the people who still dare risk their lives to document history for us ... after all, tape is one of the few things remaining that does not lie. It is how we choose to use and interpret it that is sometimes questionable...