REMEMBER NEW CALEDONIA

France / 1995 / 35 min / Video

Director : Gilles Dagneau

1942 - 1945: New Caledonia is a strategic base for the Allies in the South Pacific, a resting place for soldiers wounded in aerial combat with the Japanese fleet. Around 130,000 Americans were living in Noumea, which had a population of just 12,000. One of them, Major Andrew Vrtjak, kept a journal of his stay in a diary found by the collector Max Shekleton. In company with André Jacquier, a specialist of the period, the film uncovers the never before seen images of the American army, unearthed by Caledonian historian Ismet Kurtovitch.