ACS Northern Territory member Ian Richards is directing the new feature documentary The Tiwi Warrior & the Samurai from the Sky, and principal photography has just been completed in Darwin and on the Tiwi Islands. It’s the story of the first Japanese airman to be captured on Australian soil during World War 2. It occurred on the Tiwi Islands during the first bombing raid on Darwin on 19th February 1942.
“More bombs were dropped on Darwin that day than were dropped on Pearl Harbour a few weeks earlier on 7th December 1941” says director Ian Richards, “It was actually the same carrier fleet and it was the first time a Japanese Zero had been captured during the war in any theatre. It’s a fascinating and largely untold tale of survival and a remarkable meeting of two cultures”.
ACS Northern Territory branch president Andrew Hyde is the director of photography and the camera department includes 1st AC Nick Parry and two indigenous attachments from First Nations Television. “The film is being shot on the Sony FX9 with Zeiss CP2 prime lenes and we have been using the brand new Sony Alpha 1 mirrorless full frame,8K where possible, as a capture device and the 100FPS at 4k has been fantastic, shooting reenactment scenes in very challenging locations on the Tiwis” said Andrew Hyde
The Japanese airman captured on the Tiwi Islands was later one of the leaders in the infamous Cowra POW Breakout in 1944.
The documentary will be released in time for the 80th anniversary of the Bombing of Darwin in February 2022.
