Documentary Feature (First Run Features)

Don McCarthy was 20 years old on D-Day, when his infantry division landed on Omaha Beach in 1944. Don and the other veterans who survived D-Day will someday soon pass into memory and legend. This realization inspires 20-year-old filmmaker Charlotte Juergens to join Don and seven other D-day vets on a journey to France - a commemorative pilgrimage to Omaha Beach for the 70th anniversary of the invasion.

The vets come to see Charlotte as a granddaughter, trusting her with their stories as they confront the trauma that still haunts them 70 years after the war. In capturing their stories, Sunken Roads offers a new, intergenerational perspective on D-Day, presenting the memories of 90-year-old combat veterans through the eyes of a 20-year-old woman.

 

Characters

  • Don

    Don McCarthy grew up in Boston and joined the 29th Infantry Division in England in early 1944 as a member of the 116th Infantry's 1st Battalion. His landing craft capsized on D-Day, and later on he was wounded on Omaha Beach. He worked for Bell Telephone for more than three decades after the war and lived in Rhode Island.

  • Suzette

    Suzanne Gandon grew up near the commune of Juaye-Mondaye in Calvados, Normandy, where she experienced D-Day as a young girl. During the invasion, Suzette lived with her mother and two sisters in a trench outside their home. Suzette remains in Juaye-Mondaye, where she lives in a restored thirteenth-century farmhouse.

  • Charlotte

    Charlotte never met her great grandfather Pat Hanna, who landed on Omaha Beach in WWII and died before she was born. As a child, she loved listening to recordings of his gravelly voice. She started making Sunken Roads as an effort to get to know Pat indirectly by understanding the men who shared his world.

  • Pat

    Pat Hanna grew up in Texas and served as a war correspondent for Stars and Stripes during WWII, while engaging in intelligence work for the US Army. Pat attached himself to the 29th Infantry Division during the D-Day invasion. Pat received the Distinguished Service Cross and worked as a newspaperman after the war.

  • Arden

    Arden grew up in Pennsylvania and landed on Omaha Beach in the first minutes of the D-Day invasion as a member of Company H, 116th Infantry, 29th Division. He holds two Purple Hearts for war wounds. After the war he settled in Erie, Pennsylvania, and worked for the U.S. Postal Service.

  • Hal

    A native New Yorker, Hal Baumgarten took pre-med courses at New York University before being drafted. He joined the 29th Infantry Division and was wounded on Omaha Beach in the first minutes of the D-Day invasion as a member of Company B, 116th Infantry. He gained an M.D. degree after the war and lived in Florida.

Filmmaking Team

  • Charlotte - Director

    Charlotte Juergens is an independent filmmaker, archival producer, and history scholar originally from Brooklyn, NY. Sunken Roads is her first feature-length documentary. Her past archival work includes collaboration on numerous feature films and museum exhibitions. She holds degrees from Yale and the University of Chicago and is currently a Ph.D. student in American Culture at the University of Michigan.

  • Lydia - Producer

    Lydia Robertson has worked in film and television for over 30 years, wearing many hats of all shapes and sizes. Her efforts as a producer, fundraiser, director, news and documentary film editor, sound editor, audio and video engineer, rock photographer, and lighting designer have resulted in many international and domestic awards, including numerous Emmys and one Oscar.

  • Mark - Editor

    Mark Juergens has been a filmmaker in New York since 1982. His work as an editor has allowed him to stumble into documentary and feature films, music videos, episodic television and all sorts experimental video weirdness. Some of his projects have aired on HBO, Comedy Central, A&E, MSNBC, and PBS. Films he's edited have screened at Sundance, NYFF, SXSW, DOCNYC, and Berlinale. Many have won awards.

  • Jordan - Composer

    Jordan Plotner is a British/American award-winning composer and writer based in Los Angeles. His music has appeared in over forty films, television shows, and commercials worldwide. He has worked with esteemed film composers Marco Beltrami and Joe Trapanese, and has worked on projects for artists ranging from Hans Zimmer and Angelina Jolie to Daft Punk. In 2017 he graduated from Yale University cum laude.

  • Mark - Composer

    Mark Suozzo is a Visiting Associate Professor of Film Scoring in the Department of Music at NYU. He has scored many feature films and documentaries for award-winning filmmakers. His work for television includes scores for HBO, PBS’s American Experience, POV and Independent Lens. Suozzo’s original works have been performed at venues from Carnegie Hall to the Blue Note.