LAST COMPLETED PRODUCTION

 

The War At Home

Deborah is currently working on a film with Shelley Saywell called the 'The War at Home' for the CBC - this film concerns domestic violence in Canadian Society. Broadcast date occured Mar. 17, 2016 on CBC - 'First Hand'

 

This is a story of a war woman are trying to survive everyday in their own homes.  The numbers are staggering, Nine times the number of deaths as civil wars, globally.  Here at home, one woman each week is murdered by an intimate partner.  In a ten year period, that is 3 times the number of fatalities suffered by our troops in Afghanistan.  And like the aftermath of any war, many more victims have been left scarred and battered, too frightened, or too ashamed, or to economically dependent, to leave the one place that is safe for them. Some remain silent, but carry PTSD from their chronic abuse, a toxic mix for the children they are raising. The war Against Women explores the ways in which we as a society are failing women- by failing to protect or even understand the threat they face from the men that they allow to get close, the ones they have lived with or loved, the ones that can never let them go.

 

Directed/Written by Shelley Saywell,   Produced by Deborah Parks

 

 

NOW IN DEVELOPMENT

 

Women And Justice (working title)

Pre-production and and preliminary filming completed on location in India in 2013

 

Directed/Written by Shelley Saywell,   Production and photography by Deborah Parks

 

 

The Liberators (working title)

​

The story of 18 Canadian WW2 Veterans - 'Liberators'  and their amazing relationship with the Dutch people. 'We Canadians do not call them Liberators - the Dutch do.'  There exists today a close bond between Canadian WW2 Veterans and the people of Provincial Friesland which was the last area of Holland liberated from Nazi occupation. Invited by 'The Province of Friesland' - 18 Veterans became their honoured guests in May 2015 for the 70th Anniversary of their Liberation.

 

Fast forward 70 years to interviews with the 18 Veterans who through their storys give us a glimpse into their present lives and their experience 70 years ago as young men during WW2. We journey one step further and experience the reality of young Canadian soldiers today. Why they joined the military... who are they? Fortunate to get a privileged view of a Canadian Regiment that was part of the Dutch Liberation - The Royal Canadian Dragoons. We observe them in Wainright Alberta as they train hard and seriously preparing for today's conflicts. Some are relatively new soldiers and some are veterans of Afghanistan and Bosnia!  They have many things in common with WW2's Liberators - youth - a spiritual mission to make a difference and their willingness to sacrifice to defend those that cannot defend themselves.

 

Now in pre-production...

 

Canadian Locations:

Toronto, Oshawa, Mount Albert, CFB Petawawa, CFB Wainright (Alberta), Fisherville, Stratford, Ontario  2015-2016

 

Netherland Locations:

Amsterdam and in Province of Friesland - Leeuwarden, Apeldoorn, Holten, Dokhum, Franeker in 2015/2018 and 2020

​

                                                                                                                                                                LINK TO VIDEO

 

 

 

 

 

​

 

​

 

 

 

 

​

​

 

 

​

​

The Jim Parks Story and the Royal Winnipeg Rifles  (working title)

Also in the pre development stage is an initiative to produce a film on the wartime experiences of Jim Parks of the Royal Winnipeg Rifles during WW2.  Subject material includes D Day, The Battle for Caen, The Leopold Canal, The Scheldt, the Liberation of Holland and the push into Germany.