This was my third visit to the Emerald City, as Seattle in the USA is affectionally named. The first visit was to meet survivors for my proposed film, the second was to shoot several important sequences, and the third was to have a screening of the completed work. It gave me, the filmmaker, great satisfaction and a sense of coming full circle.

FILM SCREENING IN THE EMERALD CITY

The film ‘Through Hell and High Water’ is an internationally funded feature documentary. It tells the story of a most extraordinary World War ll rescue carried out by the British Navy in the North of Norway. Nancy Eide, a young and beautiful Norwegian girl in hiding from the Nazis and Archie Kelly, a charming Scottish Seaman, would not have met on the storm tossed seas of the Atlantic Ocean if it had not been for this unprecedented and compassionate event – 500 souls were saved. In the film, I tell the story through their love affair. The protagonists, Nancy and Archie, live in Seattle and on the 25th September celebrated their 59th wedding anniversary, and so, it was a great event for them to see the film on the big screen surrounded by friends and family. This had always been my goal and it made my heart sing.

The screening was sponsored by the Norwegian Consulate in San Francisco and hosted by the Nordic Heritage Museum in Seattle. We had the many newspaper articles on the walls, inspired by earlier screenings in UK and Europe, as well as, film posters and more importantly we had a full house. The Nordic Museum did a grand job. (Cont. next page)