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This year’s BFI London Film Festival is heading into the trenches. With the centenary of the 1918 Armistice falling just a few weeks after the LFF, Peter Jackson’s World War I film, ‘They Shall Not Grow Old’, will get its world premiere in the West End and offer a fitting act of cinematic remembrance a hundred years on.
‘The Lord of the Rings’ director has been busy restoring and colourising footage of Tommies in the trenches, presenting it in 3D and augmenting it with audio gleaned from 600 hours of archival interviews with veterans. ‘By using our computing power to erase the technical limitations of 100-year cinema,’ he explains, ‘we can see and hear the Great War as they experienced it’. Hear him explain the process in full in this specially commissioned video:
A part of the 14-18 NOW programme of cultural events commemorating the war's centenary, ‘They Shall Not Grow Old’ will premiere at the BFI Southbank on October 16. If you’re not lucky enough to snag a ticket for that, fear not: the film will be simultaneously screened in 2D and 3D to cinemas and venues across the UK. There’ll also be a post-film Q&A with Jackson.
Head here for the full listing of BFI Southbank Screenings. UK-wide screenings go on sale at 10am on August 29. Full info can be found at the film’s official site.
The 62nd BFI London Film Festival runs from Wednesday October 10 to Sunday October 21.