William Bemister
Encyclopedia
William Bemister was a British documentary film
maker and journalist
.
Commissioner's Office at New Scotland Yard in the 1960s, Bemister started his journalism career with the politically liberal Rhodesia Herald and Sunday Mail newspaper group in pre-independence Rhodesia
before joining the Rhodesian Broadcasting Corporation
and its television subsidiary, RTV
in Salisbury
as a news sub-editor. He also contributed to the later banned African nationalist newspaper Moto
.
and worked as a general reporter for the tabloid NZ Truth, known in the early 1970s for its exposé journalism and investigative reporting. He then immigrated to Australia
where he joined Rupert Murdoch
's News Limited
newspaper titles: The Truth
(formerly Melbourne's investigative tabloid, allegedly generating substantial profits, which contributed to Murdoch's acquisition of the British News of the World
), the Sydney
Sunday Telegraph
, and the national daily, The Australian
.
He returned to the broadcast media with the Australian Broadcasting Commission
in both Melbourne
and Sydney
and the Australian Ten Television Network
as Special Investigative Producer in Sydney
.
train robber Ronald Biggs, who was then living in Brazil
.
Bemister's co-produced 90-minute film The Hunter and the Hunted, about Nazi war criminals, their whereabouts, and the Nazi hunters who sought their arrest and prosecution, was commissioned by the Australian Seven Network
and filmed on location in South America
, France
, Germany
, Israel
and the UK
. Included in the film were scenes identifying the then home in La Paz
, Bolivia
, of Klaus Barbie
, former head of the Gestapo
in Lyon
, France
, and the first confirmation by a Bolivian law officer of Barbie’s true identity.
Barbie had been living under the alias Klaus Altmann, and while the Paris
Nazi hunter
s Serge and Beate Klarsfeld
had identified him in Bolivia in 1971, the government there had always refused requests to extradite him to France. In a filmed interview with Bemister, La Paz District Attorney
Gaston Ladesma admitted that Altmann had confessed to him that he was Klaus Barbie
. On January 19, 1983, 14 months after The Hunter and the Hunted was telecast on network television in the United States
that a new moderate
government in Bolivia
deported Barbie to France
to stand trial.
The film also contained the only filmed interview of SS-Standartenführer
Walter Rauff
(who has been called "arguably the most wanted Nazi fugitive then alive"). In 1979, Bemister traced Rauff to a small bungalow in a suburb of the Chilean capital, Santiago, near a house occupied by his son and grandchildren. A few hours later Bemister found himself on the wrong side of a jammed garden gate to the son's house as the former SS Standartenführer
Walter Rauff
sought entry from the street, while a nearby surveillance camera team filmed the whole encounter. Unaware of Bemister's hidden microphone, Rauff gave his only filmed interview, joking about Nazi hunter
Simon Wiesenthal
: "We are all old (presumably referring to other Nazis) and failing him in clients".
Adolf Eichmann
's son Horst also controversially discusses the case against his father in the film. A 58-minute version of the film was later telecast on PBS in the United States
for which Bemister won the 1981 Emmy for Outstanding Investigative Journalism on U.S. Network Television and the 1982 CINE Golden Eagle Award.
Bemister's other international producer credits include Philby on Thames Television
in Britain, Moscow's Man for Sveriges Television
, WDR-Fernsehen
in Germany, and the Discovery Channel
worldwide; and the Home Box Office
documentary special America Undercover: The Search for Dr Josef Mengele
for which he worked as Producer-Correspondent. He was also Investigative Reporter for Fremantle Media's The Seven Million Dollar Fugitive.
His productions for Australian television networks include a two-hour feature documentary, Spy Trap, telecast by the Australian Broadcasting Commission; the one-hour documentary special Psychic Visions Of The Future, a cynical look at the world's alleged psychics for the Australian Ten Television Network
, and Warriors Of The Deep, a docudrama about the Japanese midget submarine attack into the heart of Sydney Harbor in 1942, then the base for American and Australian warships. This film was telecast by the Australian Seven Network
.
entitled Admissible Evidence, which planned to incorporate cinematographic and photographic evidence, satellite mapping of crime loci, ground penetrating radar, electronic and human intelligence, and other forensic evidence to identify World War II
(Great Patriotic War) German war criminals and their collaborators, including members of the Romanian Army and Police.
The project planned to incorporate evidence of some scientists in face, gait, and voice recognition from the United States, Sweden and Germany, and investigators 'cold case' Nazi war crimes committed between 1938 and 1945, including new evidence of murders of Jewish babies and burning of live victims in quicklime; such crimes were to be exposed for the first time, together with admissible evidence concerning each case.
The technologies, where possible, would have also identified Nazi victims: principally Jews
, but also Slavs, Roma, homosexuals, psychiatric patients, pacifists including Quakers, Red Army prisoners-of-war, and unarmed civilians.
To redress cases where many thousands of alleged war criminals were not prosecuted, the film was to present forensic 'nano-evidence'. The film, a German, Russian, and UK co-production with the participation of other European organisations, was scheduled for production in 2009, and was the recipient of UK National Lottery
Funding, through a grant from the British Government’s Department of the Media, the UK Film Council
, and Screen South.
The picture was to abandon the conventional British documentary
format in favor of $4 million production values and the style of a forensic/detective procedural drama with four-camera cinematography, innovative mis-en-scene and lighting, the most advanced visual effects - commonly used in big budget adventure features - and rapid editing.
It was not planned that the film would address armed partisan
actions, but was to side-bar Soviet NKVD war crimes, the very few war crimes committed by the Allies, and as a postscript, review the cases of organizations, scientific academics, and reactionary historians who attempted to 'red flag' the production.
The future of the project is uncertain since Bemister's death.
. More recently, with American, German, and Swedish colleagues, he carried out studies into experimental forensic technologies for Admissible Evidence
.
Bemister was a life member of the Oxford University Film Foundation
, and a member of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
, New York, and the Frontline Club
, London. He was also an Associate Member of the Oxford University Society. He was educated at St George’s College, Weybridge, England, and received the Undergraduate Diploma in Film Studies at the University of Oxford
.
Throughout his life, Bemister suffered from intermittent bipolar disorder
. He helped to establish the "Equilibrium" foundation, which promotes research about the condition. He was married briefly in 1995.
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
maker and journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
.
Rhodesia
After brief service in the ranks with the regular British Army's Intelligence Corps, then the Corps' Territorial Army airborne unit, and the civil staff of the Metropolitan PoliceMetropolitan police
Metropolitan Police is a generic title for the municipal police force for a major metropolitan area, and it may be part of the official title of the force...
Commissioner's Office at New Scotland Yard in the 1960s, Bemister started his journalism career with the politically liberal Rhodesia Herald and Sunday Mail newspaper group in pre-independence Rhodesia
Rhodesia
Rhodesia , officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state located in southern Africa that existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965...
before joining the Rhodesian Broadcasting Corporation
Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation
The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation is the state-controlled broadcaster in Zimbabwe. It succeeded the Voice of Zimbabwe Rhodesia in 1980, which in turn had succeeded the Rhodesian Broadcasting Corporation in 1979...
and its television subsidiary, RTV
Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation
The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation is the state-controlled broadcaster in Zimbabwe. It succeeded the Voice of Zimbabwe Rhodesia in 1980, which in turn had succeeded the Rhodesian Broadcasting Corporation in 1979...
in Salisbury
Harare
Harare before 1982 known as Salisbury) is the largest city and capital of Zimbabwe. It has an estimated population of 1,600,000, with 2,800,000 in its metropolitan area . Administratively, Harare is an independent city equivalent to a province. It is Zimbabwe's largest city and its...
as a news sub-editor. He also contributed to the later banned African nationalist newspaper Moto
Moto (magazine)
Moto was founded in 1959 in Zimbabwe's Midlands town of Gweru as a weekly community newspaper by the Catholic church. From these modest beginnings, Moto fast became one of the most outspoken voices in the liberation war, providing scathing criticism of the colonial government and support for...
.
New Zealand and Australia
In 1974, he moved to New ZealandNew Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
and worked as a general reporter for the tabloid NZ Truth, known in the early 1970s for its exposé journalism and investigative reporting. He then immigrated to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
where he joined Rupert Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG is an Australian-American business magnate. He is the founder and Chairman and CEO of , the world's second-largest media conglomerate....
's News Limited
News Limited
News Limited is one of Australia's largest diversified media companies. The publicly listed company's interests span newspaper and magazine publishing, Internet, Pay TV, National Rugby League, market research, DVD and film distribution, and film and television production trading assets.News Limited...
newspaper titles: The Truth
The Truth (newspaper)
The Truth was a Melbourne tabloid newspaper established in 1902 as a subsidiary of the Sydney Truth, established in 1890.In its early years its politics was very much left-leaning, and it painted itself as the voice of the working class. Before 1945 it had a style of journalism that was high...
(formerly Melbourne's investigative tabloid, allegedly generating substantial profits, which contributed to Murdoch's acquisition of the British News of the World
News of the World
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...
), the Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
Sunday Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph (Australia)
The Daily Telegraph is an Australian tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, by Nationwide News, part of News Corporation.The Tele, as it is also known, was founded in 1879. From 1936 to 1972, it was owned by Frank Packer's Australian Consolidated Press. That year it was sold to...
, and the national daily, The Australian
The Australian
The Australian is a broadsheet newspaper published in Australia from Monday to Saturday each week since 14 July 1964. The editor in chief is Chris Mitchell, the editor is Clive Mathieson and the 'editor-at-large' is Paul Kelly....
.
He returned to the broadcast media with the Australian Broadcasting Commission
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
in both Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
and Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
and the Australian Ten Television Network
Network Ten
Network Ten , is one of Australia's three major commercial television networks. Owned-and-operated stations can be found in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, while affiliates extend the network to cover most of the country...
as Special Investigative Producer in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
.
Television
As an independent television journalist, Bemister's first film was The Confessions of Ronald Biggs, a documentary about the fugitive BritishUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
train robber Ronald Biggs, who was then living in Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
.
Bemister's co-produced 90-minute film The Hunter and the Hunted, about Nazi war criminals, their whereabouts, and the Nazi hunters who sought their arrest and prosecution, was commissioned by the Australian Seven Network
Seven Network
The Seven Network is an Australian television network owned by Seven West Media Limited. It dates back to 4 November 1956, when the first stations on the VHF7 frequency were established in Melbourne and Sydney.It is currently the second largest network in the country in terms of population reach...
and filmed on location in South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
and the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. Included in the film were scenes identifying the then home in La Paz
La Paz
Nuestra Señora de La Paz is the administrative capital of Bolivia, as well as the departmental capital of the La Paz Department, and the second largest city in the country after Santa Cruz de la Sierra...
, Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
, of Klaus Barbie
Klaus Barbie
Nikolaus 'Klaus' Barbie was an SS-Hauptsturmführer , Gestapo member and war criminal. He was known as the Butcher of Lyon.- Early life :...
, former head of the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
in Lyon
Lyon
Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, and the first confirmation by a Bolivian law officer of Barbie’s true identity.
Barbie had been living under the alias Klaus Altmann, and while the Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
Nazi hunter
Nazi hunter
A Nazi-hunter is a private individual who tracks down and gathers information on alleged former Nazis, SS members and Nazi collaborators involved in the Holocaust, typically for use at trial on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity...
s Serge and Beate Klarsfeld
Serge and Beate Klarsfeld
Serge and Beate Klarsfeld are activists known for engaging in Holocaust documentation and anti-Nazi activism...
had identified him in Bolivia in 1971, the government there had always refused requests to extradite him to France. In a filmed interview with Bemister, La Paz District Attorney
District attorney
In many jurisdictions in the United States, a District Attorney is an elected or appointed government official who represents the government in the prosecution of criminal offenses. The district attorney is the highest officeholder in the jurisdiction's legal department and supervises a staff of...
Gaston Ladesma admitted that Altmann had confessed to him that he was Klaus Barbie
Klaus Barbie
Nikolaus 'Klaus' Barbie was an SS-Hauptsturmführer , Gestapo member and war criminal. He was known as the Butcher of Lyon.- Early life :...
. On January 19, 1983, 14 months after The Hunter and the Hunted was telecast on network television in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
that a new moderate
Moderate
In politics and religion, a moderate is an individual who is not extreme, partisan or radical. In recent years, political moderates has gained traction as a buzzword....
government in Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
deported Barbie to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
to stand trial.
The film also contained the only filmed interview of SS-Standartenführer
Standartenführer
Standartenführer was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that was used in the so-called Nazi combat-organisations: SA, SS, NSKK and the NSFK...
Walter Rauff
Walter Rauff
Walter Rauff , was an SS officer in Nazi Germany, attaining the grade of Colonel in June 1944...
(who has been called "arguably the most wanted Nazi fugitive then alive"). In 1979, Bemister traced Rauff to a small bungalow in a suburb of the Chilean capital, Santiago, near a house occupied by his son and grandchildren. A few hours later Bemister found himself on the wrong side of a jammed garden gate to the son's house as the former SS Standartenführer
Standartenführer
Standartenführer was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that was used in the so-called Nazi combat-organisations: SA, SS, NSKK and the NSFK...
Walter Rauff
Walter Rauff
Walter Rauff , was an SS officer in Nazi Germany, attaining the grade of Colonel in June 1944...
sought entry from the street, while a nearby surveillance camera team filmed the whole encounter. Unaware of Bemister's hidden microphone, Rauff gave his only filmed interview, joking about Nazi hunter
Nazi hunter
A Nazi-hunter is a private individual who tracks down and gathers information on alleged former Nazis, SS members and Nazi collaborators involved in the Holocaust, typically for use at trial on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity...
Simon Wiesenthal
Simon Wiesenthal
Simon Wiesenthal KBE was an Austrian Holocaust survivor who became famous after World War II for his work as a Nazi hunter....
: "We are all old (presumably referring to other Nazis) and failing him in clients".
Adolf Eichmann
Adolf Eichmann
Adolf Otto Eichmann was a German Nazi and SS-Obersturmbannführer and one of the major organizers of the Holocaust...
's son Horst also controversially discusses the case against his father in the film. A 58-minute version of the film was later telecast on PBS in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
for which Bemister won the 1981 Emmy for Outstanding Investigative Journalism on U.S. Network Television and the 1982 CINE Golden Eagle Award.
Bemister's other international producer credits include Philby on Thames Television
Thames Television
Thames Television was a licensee of the British ITV television network, covering London and parts of the surrounding counties on weekdays from 30 July 1968 until 31 December 1992....
in Britain, Moscow's Man for Sveriges Television
Sveriges Television
Sveriges Television AB , Sweden's Television, is a national television broadcaster based in Sweden, funded by a compulsory fee to be paid by all television owners...
, WDR-Fernsehen
Westdeutscher Rundfunk
Westdeutscher Rundfunk is a German public-broadcasting institution based in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia with its main office in Cologne. WDR is a constituent member of the consortium of German public-broadcasting institutions, ARD...
in Germany, and the Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...
worldwide; and the Home Box Office
Home Box Office
HBO, short for Home Box Office, is an American premium cable television network, owned by Time Warner. , HBO's programming reaches 28.2 million subscribers in the United States, making it the second largest premium network in America . In addition to its U.S...
documentary special America Undercover: The Search for Dr Josef Mengele
Josef Mengele
Josef Rudolf Mengele , also known as the Angel of Death was a German SS officer and a physician in the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. He earned doctorates in anthropology from Munich University and in medicine from Frankfurt University...
for which he worked as Producer-Correspondent. He was also Investigative Reporter for Fremantle Media's The Seven Million Dollar Fugitive.
His productions for Australian television networks include a two-hour feature documentary, Spy Trap, telecast by the Australian Broadcasting Commission; the one-hour documentary special Psychic Visions Of The Future, a cynical look at the world's alleged psychics for the Australian Ten Television Network
Network Ten
Network Ten , is one of Australia's three major commercial television networks. Owned-and-operated stations can be found in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, while affiliates extend the network to cover most of the country...
, and Warriors Of The Deep, a docudrama about the Japanese midget submarine attack into the heart of Sydney Harbor in 1942, then the base for American and Australian warships. This film was telecast by the Australian Seven Network
Seven Network
The Seven Network is an Australian television network owned by Seven West Media Limited. It dates back to 4 November 1956, when the first stations on the VHF7 frequency were established in Melbourne and Sydney.It is currently the second largest network in the country in terms of population reach...
.
Cinema feature project
In 2008, Bemister embarked on the production of a 120-minute 'cross genre' factual feature filmFeature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
entitled Admissible Evidence, which planned to incorporate cinematographic and photographic evidence, satellite mapping of crime loci, ground penetrating radar, electronic and human intelligence, and other forensic evidence to identify World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
(Great Patriotic War) German war criminals and their collaborators, including members of the Romanian Army and Police.
The project planned to incorporate evidence of some scientists in face, gait, and voice recognition from the United States, Sweden and Germany, and investigators 'cold case' Nazi war crimes committed between 1938 and 1945, including new evidence of murders of Jewish babies and burning of live victims in quicklime; such crimes were to be exposed for the first time, together with admissible evidence concerning each case.
The technologies, where possible, would have also identified Nazi victims: principally Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
, but also Slavs, Roma, homosexuals, psychiatric patients, pacifists including Quakers, Red Army prisoners-of-war, and unarmed civilians.
To redress cases where many thousands of alleged war criminals were not prosecuted, the film was to present forensic 'nano-evidence'. The film, a German, Russian, and UK co-production with the participation of other European organisations, was scheduled for production in 2009, and was the recipient of UK National Lottery
National Lottery (United Kingdom)
The National Lottery is the state-franchised national lottery in the United Kingdom and the Isle of Man.It is operated by Camelot Group, to whom the licence was granted in 1994, 2001 and again in 2007. The lottery is regulated by the National Lottery Commission, and was established by the then...
Funding, through a grant from the British Government’s Department of the Media, the UK Film Council
UK Film Council
The UK Film Council was set up in 2000 by the Labour Government as a non-departmental public body to develop and promote the film industry in the UK. It was constituted as a private company limited by guarantee governed by a board of 15 directors and was funded through sources including the...
, and Screen South.
The picture was to abandon the conventional British documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
format in favor of $4 million production values and the style of a forensic/detective procedural drama with four-camera cinematography, innovative mis-en-scene and lighting, the most advanced visual effects - commonly used in big budget adventure features - and rapid editing.
It was not planned that the film would address armed partisan
Partisan (military)
A partisan is a member of an irregular military force formed to oppose control of an area by a foreign power or by an army of occupation by some kind of insurgent activity...
actions, but was to side-bar Soviet NKVD war crimes, the very few war crimes committed by the Allies, and as a postscript, review the cases of organizations, scientific academics, and reactionary historians who attempted to 'red flag' the production.
The future of the project is uncertain since Bemister's death.
Other biography
In 2007, his work featured in Richard Trank’s documentary I Have Never Forgotten You: The Life & Legacy of Simon WiesenthalSimon Wiesenthal
Simon Wiesenthal KBE was an Austrian Holocaust survivor who became famous after World War II for his work as a Nazi hunter....
. More recently, with American, German, and Swedish colleagues, he carried out studies into experimental forensic technologies for Admissible Evidence
Admissible evidence
Admissible evidence, in a court of law, is any testimonial, documentary, or tangible evidence that may be introduced to a factfinder—usually a judge or jury—in order to establish or to bolster a point put forth by a party to the proceeding...
.
Bemister was a life member of the Oxford University Film Foundation
Oxford University Film Foundation
The Oxford University Film Foundation was founded in 1981 by Michael Hoffman, Peter Schwabach and Rick Stevenson. Its first production was the 1982 feature film Privileged, starring Hugh Grant, James Wilby, Imogen Stubbs and Mark Williams...
, and a member of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences or NATAS was created in 1955 to advance the arts and sciences of television. Headquartered in New York, NATAS's membership is national and the organization has local chapters around the country....
, New York, and the Frontline Club
Frontline Club
The Frontline Club is a media club near London's Paddington Station. With a strong emphasis on conflict reporting, it aims to champion independent journalism, provide an effective platform from which to support diversity and professionalism in the media, promote safe practice, and encourage both...
, London. He was also an Associate Member of the Oxford University Society. He was educated at St George’s College, Weybridge, England, and received the Undergraduate Diploma in Film Studies at the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
.
Throughout his life, Bemister suffered from intermittent bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder or bipolar affective disorder, historically known as manic–depressive disorder, is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a category of mood disorders defined by the presence of one or more episodes of abnormally elevated energy levels, cognition, and mood with or without one or...
. He helped to establish the "Equilibrium" foundation, which promotes research about the condition. He was married briefly in 1995.
External links
- User page of William Bemister (with biography) at the BBC Film Network
- Biography (by Bemister himself, 2006) and filmography from the British Film Institute
- Moscow Man entry at HKUST library