MILL VALLEY, CALIFORNIA
Artist, filmmaker and educator Jeanne Finley will premiered her latest documentary Red Boat Crossing at Mill Valley Film Festival October 10th in San Rafael.
Sixty-five years after the Allied invasion of Southern France, the director’s mother, Cecily Barker Finley, tries to recall her involvement as a social worker aboard a WWII Red Cross ship, the Château Thierry. These memories are recorded in letters and phone calls with her daughter who is living on the coast of France where the invasion occurred. After her mother dies, the daughter discovers a trunk buried under old rugs in the back of the family garage. Unopened since the 1940s, the trunk is filled with her mother’s Red Cross memorabilia. By carefully documenting the trunk’s contents, missing pieces of the invasion story begin to come into focus. Yet, despite a mountain of facts and photographs, mysteries persist about family, war, and what it means to be a hero.
Red Boat Crossing, combines spoken and written recollections of Cecily Finley’s experience taking care of the wounded, with the Historical Record of the invasion of Southern France written by the captain of the Château Thierry. Mrs. Finley tends to the emotional needs of the soldiers while filling in on nursing duties for which she is not trained. At one point, she receives leave to fly to the front line where her brother is severely wounded.