Sunken Roads: Three Generations After D-Day
Sunken Roads follows Charlotte, a young woman who joins eight D-Day veterans on a road trip to retrace their route from World War II. The veterans come to see Charlotte as a granddaughter, trusting her with their stories and confronting the trauma that still haunts them 70 years after the war. A first-person documentary reminiscent of Faces Places and Sherman’s March, Sunken Roads offers a new perspective on D-Day by presenting the memories of 90-year-old men through the eyes of a 20-year-old woman.
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Charlotte JuergensDirector
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Lydia RobertsonProducer
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Charlotte JuergensProducer
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Don McCarthyKey Cast"Self"
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Arden EarllKey Cast"Self"
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Hal BaumgartenKey Cast"Self"
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Suzette GandonKey Cast"Self"
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Charlotte JuergensKey Cast"Self"
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Mark JuergensEditor
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Mark SuozzoComposer
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Jordan PlotnerComposer
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Charlotte JuergensWriter
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Project Type:Documentary
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Genres:Documentary
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Runtime:1 hour 30 minutes
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Completion Date:May 31, 2019
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Production Budget:50,000 USD
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Country of Origin:United States
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Country of Filming:France, United Kingdom, United States
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Language:English, French
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Shooting Format:Digital
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:Yes
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Student Project:No
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Middlebury New Filmmakers FestivalMiddlebury, VT
United States
August 25, 2019
World premiere
Official Selection -
GI Film FestivalSan Diego, CA
United States
September 28, 2019
West Coast Premiere
Nominated for Best Feature Documentary
Distribution Information
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First Run FeaturesCountry: United StatesRights: All Rights
Charlotte Juergens is an independent documentary filmmaker and archival researcher, working to recover stories that have been obscured by time and memory. Sunken Roads is Charlotte’s first feature-length film. Aside from Sunken Roads, Charlotte works as an archival researcher at NBC News Archives, helping documentarians and curators unearth archival footage for their projects. Charlotte previously served as an archival researcher for the Academy Award-nominated short documentary, Joe’s Violin. She received her B.A. in History from Yale in 2016 and her M.A. in History from the University of Chicago in 2018.
Through the process of test screenings, I’ve learned that Sunken Roads carries an unusual significance for many female viewers. After watching the film, numerous women have told me they were amazed to see a young woman insert herself into the male-dominated sphere of military history. These women explained that military history had never interested them before, because military narratives are almost always delivered through an ultra-masculine perspective. I have been humbled to learn that Sunken Roads represents a step forward in opening up this important aspect of our history to women’s voices.
Given the recent 75th anniversary of D-Day on June 6, Sunken Roads is a particularly timely film. Sunken Roads allows us to learn D-Day’s history through the voices of the men and women who experienced it, to understand its meaning as both an historic event and a personal nightmare, and to contemplate its significance 75 years later.