Published on: 1 August 2014

James Bogle1_v2Film and television writer and director James Bogle (1977) recently finished directing a dramatic four-part historical documentary series about Australia’s involvement in World War One. Screen Australia’s Chief Executive Ruth Harley describes the series as “a remarkable Australian story told on a grand scale.”

The War That Changed Us is an epic story of Australia’s involvement in WW1 as told through the eyes of six Australians. Their transformative journeys, through conflict on the warfront and the home front, brought to life through a blend of personal testimony, drama, expert analysis, location filming and archive. 

WA documentary producer Andrew Ogilvie produced the series while James directed all the dramatic sequences, which make up some 75 per cent of the series.

Remarkably, all of the drama was shot in and around Perth over a six-week period late last year. The sequences include re-enactments of the landing at Gallipoli; action sequences at war in Northern France; re-enactments of speakers at the Domain in Sydney and on the Yarra in Melbourne circa 1915; period scenes of the families of soldiers in rural and suburban Australia; and soldiers and nurses on ships and in makeshift hospitals on the front.

Working closely with renowned Australian documentary director Don Featherstone (the series director), James says: “My Grandfather fought and survived WWI and Uncle Stewart lost his life in WW2. I’ve never been overly fascinated by war, but this production centres very much on six personal experiences during those times both home and abroad.

“Electric Pictures has produced a swag of award-winning documentaries featuring snippets of drama, but this had a bigger drama component than anything they had done before. For me, it certainly was a more densely populated production than I had done before, featuring close to 60 featured actors, not to mention a multitude of extras, a lot of action and so on, so it was always going to be a challenge. But it was one of those projects that just came together beautifully.

“An excellent cast including Virginia Gay (All Saints, Winners And Losers) and Miles Pollard (McLeod’s Daughters, Drift) and a brilliant Western Australian crew, who know how to work hard… I enjoyed every minute of it.”

The War That Changed Us screens from 19 August on ABC TV. To watch the trailer, click here.