A new short film reveals the true story of a gay New Zealand soldier in WWII who, after an extraordinary protest, was punished for desertion and spent the rest of his life in a psychiatric institution.
Filmmaker Welby Ings weaves that story with two from his own family history in a poetic comment on war in the film Sparrow.
Welby discovered the story of the gay soldier when he was given letters the man had sent to his son from the psychiatric institution.
The incident which led to the soldier's incarceration happened in the dugouts of Egypt. After his lover and comrade was shot – and in disgust at the futility of war – the soldier tore off his uniform and carried his lover's body into enemy gunfire. Miraculously, he survived, only to be charged with desertion and institutionalised.
Welby says the story was hidden for years because the family, like many other New Zealand families at the time, were ashamed of what happened.
“When these men returned from war – if they were torn apart psychologically, if they’d deserted, if they’d attempted suicide, if they were gay… issues like that, because they didn’t form part of the grand narrative of war, the families hid them or replaced them.”
He first considered telling the story in a documentary, but found its heart-breaking humanity was better suited to a more poetic form.
The experience of Welby’s grandfather forms the second strand of the story. When he refused to fight in WWII, his family were terrified he’d be given a white feather – an emblem of cowardice local people gave to men who didn’t serve.
“There was this real fear that if you don’t conform to the dominant idea, if you question it, then you are failing the society. Non-involvement with war is aligned with cowardice, not with critical thinking or having values, but with failing some idea of masculinity.”
Sparrow centres on a small boy named Jim, who is teased because he thinks he can fly. After discovering the truth about his war veteran grandfather, Jim finds the strength to stand up to his bullies in an unusual way. Jim is based on Welby himself.
“When I was a wee kid I firmly believed he could fly."
Welby is currently working on a feature film, Punch, which takes the character Jim into adulthood.
Welby Ings is a filmmaker, playwright, designer and a Professor of Graphic Design at AUT. His two previous short films Boy and Munted have screened in more than 50 international film festivals and won numerous awards.
