George Washington's
First War Electronic Press Kit
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 Pittsburgh
Filmmakers Go to War
In 2001 Paladin Communications released When the Forest
Ran Red: Washington, Braddock and a Doomed Army. This
groundbreaking film documentary chronicled the opening
days of the French & Indian War, which in turn
helped to set America on the road to revolution a generation
later. The film has aired in major markets across
the United States, earned five national awards, and
been sold into secondary school systems and universities
from coast to coast. Now Paladin has completed
principal photography on the sequel, George Washington’s
First War: The Battles for Fort Duquesne.
This 2003 documentary begins where Forest concluded,
with the shocking defeat of Gen. Edward Braddock’s “invincible” British
army in the Ohio country by a French-Indian allied
force from Fort Duquesne. It is left to Braddock’s
young aide, George Washington, to lead the retreat
from the battlefield. Now the British colonies
of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland are undefended,
and French-led raiding parties use terror to roll English
settlements back toward the Atlantic coast. Into
this bleak situation again steps Washington, drafted
by Virginia to command its undermanned army. For
three years Washington matches wits with an enemy he
calls “the most skilled in the world.” Finally
the British government launches a new attack against
the French stronghold of Fort Duquesne, with George
Washington in the lead. Here Washington will
face his greatest challenges of all.
Featured in the new motion picture are large battle
reenactments, the art of Robert Griffing, John Buxton,
Nat Youngblood, and Lee Teter, and an international
cast of prominent historians led by Francis Parkman
Prize-winner Dr. Fred Anderson, author of the New York
Times bestseller, Crucible of War, and Cambridge scholar,
Dr. Stephen Brumwell, author of the current bestseller,
Redcoats.
“
The success of When the Forest Ran Red made it not
only possible but imperative that we tell the rest
of the story,” said Paladin principal Robert
Matzen about the new film. “Washington
was at his lowest point, emotionally and physically,
when he buried Braddock. But with no one else
to turn to, Virginia desperately sought him out. Here
he learned how to be a man powerful enough to overthrow
an empire.”
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Scholars
Shine in New Historical Documentary
Four published authors highlight the cast of on-camera
historians in the new French & Indian War documentary,
George Washington’s First War: The Battles
for Fort Duquesne, to be released in May 2003 by
Paladin Communications of Bethel Park in cooperation
with some of Pittsburgh’s leading historical
organizations.
George Washington’s First War is the sequel
to When the Forest Ran Red: Washington, Braddock
and a Doomed Army, a groundbreaking 2001 film documentary
that has aired in major markets across the United
States, earned five national awards, and been sold
into secondary school systems and universities from
coast to coast.
Headlining When the Forest Ran Red was Dr. Fred Anderson,
University of Colorado scholar and Francis Parkman
Prize winner for his book, Crucible of War (Alfred
A. Knopf, 2000). Anderson returns here to interpret
events that shaped the military career of young George
Washington. “I liked the way that Forest
made a complex narrative understandable in human
terms,” says Anderson. “I very
much look forward to seeing a story with Washington
at its center that deals with those same kinds of
issues.”
Fresh faces also mark George Washington’s First
War, including Dr. Stephen Brumwell, author of the
current bestseller, Redcoats (Cambridge University
Press, 2002). Says Brumwell, “The intelligent
and illuminating approach to telling the dramatic
story of these pivotal years in North America’s
history that has been adopted for these documentaries
will undoubtedly leave Paladin well placed to satisfy
the growing demand for information about America’s
first war.”
Dr. Paul Kopperman of Oregon State University and
author of the landmark Braddock at the Monongahela (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1977) makes his
first documentary appearance in George Washington’s
First War to discuss British Generals Edward Braddock
and John Forbes, both of whom led expeditions to
defeat the French at the site of present-day Pittsburgh. Other
historians appearing include Dr. John Mohawk, author
of Utopian Societies (Clear Light Publishers, 2000). Mohawk
is a member of the Seneca Nation and America’s
foremost scholar on Eastern Indians. The role
of Native American women is interpreted by Dr. Yvonne
Dion-Buffalo of the State University of New York. And
Bruce Egli, Pittsburgh colonial historian, provides
the point of view of the French while standing at
the site of Fort Duquesne, French stronghold in the
Ohio country.
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Educational Community Benefits from New Historical Film
Overwhelmingly positive reviews greeted the 2001 historical film documentary,
When the Forest Ran Red: Washington, Braddock and a Doomed Army. This
groundbreaking chronicle of the opening days of the French & Indian War
aired on PBS stations in major markets across the United States and earned
five national awards. Most importantly, it is introducing young minds
to the war that trained America’s revolutionaries, who in turn founded
the United States of America.
When the Forest Ran Red set the stage for the upcoming 2003 documentary, George
Washington’s First War: The Battles for Fort Duquesne, which promises
scholarship that is just as deep as that of its predecessor.
The journal Video Librarian said of When the Forest Ran Red, “Rich in
detail and primary source information, this would make an excellent addition
to any social studies curriculum dealing with Colonial America, and would be
of interest to general history buffs. Highly recommended.” School
Library Journal added, “Vivid narration and reenactments tell the story
of the ensuing debacle. With sufficient background preparation, social
studies and history classes can utilize this video.”
American History magazine touted Forest as “a well-presented documentary,” and
the American Association of Museums noted that,“Scholarship is deep,
structure is interesting and engaging. Nice mix of reenactments, paintings,
sketches, and drawings. Good job of presenting a seldom-studied part of our
past.”
Finally, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History endorsed the film by saying, “When
the Forest Ran Red will serve as a wonderful educational program, not only
[at the] college and university level, but most importantly for high school
students.”
Paladin Communications of Bethel Park spent the summer and fall of 2002 shooting
the sequel in five states, involving several hundred reenactors, an international
cast of historians, and the works of noted artists such as Robert Griffing
and Lee Teter. “It’s a tremendous story that really can’t
miss with students,” says writer/producer Robert Matzen. “We
intend to rivet them to their seats, to make them stop and think, ‘How
would I survive if I had to participate in this war? Which side would
I take? What would it have been like to serve under George Washington,
or better yet, to be George Washington?’ They’re great questions. We
want the audience to really think about it all.”
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