The Missing // 11:21min // Documentary // 2019 // Australia
Director: Jary Nemo
Writers: Jary Nemo, Lucinda Horrocks
Producers: Lucinda Horrocks, Jary Nemo
Cast: Bart Ziino, Melanie Oppenheimer, Richard Chew, Tymur Yashchenko, Robert Kwilman
When WW1 brought Australians face to face with mass death a Red Cross Information Bureau and post-war graves workers laboured to help families grieve for the missing.
The unprecedented death toll of the First World War generated a burden of grief. Particularly disturbing was the vast number of dead who were “missing” – their bodies never found. This short documentary explores two unsung humanitarian responses to the crisis of the missing of World War 1 – the Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau and the post-war work of the Australian Graves Detachment and Graves Services. It tells of a remarkable group of men and women, ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, who laboured to provide comfort and connection to grieving families in distant Australia.