Pamela Peak’s Emmy-Nominated Feature-Length Documentary Film on PBS
A two-hour film capturing hearts and minds all across America
THE STORY: Told in the haunting words of the young soldiers themselves, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson is forced to select 5,500 American soldiers to fight an unknown enemy called “Bolsheviks” (an early name for Communists). Stripped of everything American and placed under British command, they find themselves quartered in a frozen hell, fighting in sixty degree below zero weather, eight long months after WWI had ended. Those that survived calledd themselves “The Polar Bears”. And now, for the first time in history, America will come to know that the Cold War did not begin without fire. See a preview at: Voices 5-Minute PreviewThe Voices Come to Life
Award-winning filmmaker Pamela Peak takes us on an emotional journey inside these young men’s hearts and minds as they struggle not only with the hardships of war but also with the thought that their country had forgotten them. Their mission became known as “the acid test of loyalty to country”.
Wondering if their sons are dead or alive, the parents back home petitioned Washington D.C. to bring their sons home. And as a result of their actions, they became the first American citizens to change U.S. foreign policy.
The film documents how U.S. Senator Carl Levin gave a Congressional Tribute to these brave men, after discovering lost historical documents about the American North Russian Expedition. Theirs is a story with lessons to remember each and every time we send our sons and daughters off to war.
