Apr 26 - Madeira Evacuation Documentary Premiere
The Deputy Chief Minister Dr Joseph Garcia yesterday paid tribute the generation of Gibraltarians who were evacuated during the Second World War at the premiere of the documentary “Atlantic Exile” which covers the evacuation to Madeira.
The hour-long documentary was directed by Portuguese film-maker Mr Pedro Mesquita and produced by Ms Amanda Alvarez of IInfiel Films and Kontratiempo Films. It tells the story of the evacuation through interviews with the evacuees themselves and included photographs, footage and documents of the time.
The entire civilian population of Gibraltar, the women, children, elderly and infirm were evacuated first to Casablanca in May 1940, then re-evacuated back to Gibraltar after France capitulated and then onwards to Jamaica, London, Northern Ireland and Madeira. Some 2,000 of the 16,000 evacuees went to the Portuguese Atlantic island of Madeira.
The Deputy Chief Minister expressed sadness that many of the evacuees, including some who featured in the documentary, are no longer with us. He said that the film was nonetheless a fitting tribute to their memory. Dr Garcia explained that the evacuation was a watershed in the political development of Gibraltar and in our evolution as a people. The men who stayed behind to fight the war and their families who were sent away developed a strong sense of identity which led to demands for greater self-government and greater control over their own affairs once the war was over.
He presented a small token of appreciation to director Pedro Mesquita pointing to the obvious “passion and professionalism” with which over 100 hours of footage had been condensed into a one hour documentary. Mr Louis Pereira, who himself featured in the documentary as a former evacuee, later thanked the Government, the director and those present.
The Deputy Chief Minister Dr Joseph Garcia said:
“This documentary will not fail to touch the heart of those who see it. An important historical event is conveyed to the audience very well with compassion and humanity, sometimes sprinkled with humour.
“The Government issued a call earlier this month for former evacuees and their relatives to register for the screening without quite knowing at that stage the number of people that would do so. The event was a complete success with the larger cinema packed to capacity to the extent that the second, smaller cinema, also had to be used at short notice to cater for the overspill. Indeed it proved impossible to extend official invitations in a timely manner or at all precisely for this reason. However, the producers are in contact with Leisure Cinemas in order to provide further screenings of the documentary. My office has also been approached by a number of schools who would like to show the documentary to children who are doing the evacuation as part of their studies.
“I am very grateful to my staff, to Leisure Cinemas, to the director and producer and obviously to the evacuees themselves who clearly enjoyed getting together to discuss their shared experiences.”
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