Lew Weekes, the Canadian Army Film and Photo Unit
and the story behind Newsreel Productions

Several years ago I became aqucainted with one of the last living members of the WWII Canadian Army Film and Photo Unit. The now late Mr. Lew Weekes was a cameraman, cartoonist, artist, and gentleman, who shot war footage for the newsreels of the day. Perhaps by a stroke of a little luck Lew missed D-Day, but he was one of the first Canadians into Paris as it was being liberated. He filmed Charles DeGaulle walking down the Champs-Élysées as snipers were taking pot shots at the crowd. Some of the most notable war footage shot by Canadians during the war was shot by Lew and his comrades in the Canadian Army Film and Photo Unit (CAFPU).

Some history of the CAFPU quoted from the Canadian Society of Cinematographers website
June / 2005 Shooters The Amazing WWII Adventures of the Canadian Army Film and Photo Unit by Don Angus

“The CFPU, established in 1941 with only four members, was the last such unit formed by the Allied armies. Having grown to 59 cameramen by the time it was disbanded in 1946, unit members were the first in scooping the world on the major events in Europe: the invasion of Sicily; the D-Day invasion -- the top story of the century; the liberation of Paris; the Elbe River linkup of the Allied armies; the first feature documentary shot while under fire; and the only footage shot of action leading to a Victoria Cross.

The ranks of CFPU veterans have thinned over the 60 years since VE Day, but Shooters features intriguing interviews (shot in March of 2001) with four men who helped capture the war on film: Charles (Bud) Roos, the first Allied cameraman ashore on D-Day; Al Calder, who parachuted over the Rhine and shot that operation; Lew Weekes, who shot the liberation of Paris; and Michael Spencer, the unit's first editor and one of the original four members, who later helped found the Canadian Film Development Corp. (Telefilm Canada).

Calder and Weekes, who have sinced died, both talked about their intensive camera training at Pinewood Studios in London and the admonition they received to “always use a tripod,” despite the daunting weight of the old metal and wooden contraptions. Weekes said the Canadians persevered because “the tripod stuff took preference” over hand-held footage back in London.

The interviews are interspersed with archival CFPU footage, much of it displaying dramatically the line-of-fire risks these intrepid cameramen, armed with their Eyemos, took. They often were allowed to get ahead of advancing Canadian troops, and one film unit actually “liberated” Dieppe in France, driving in first mere hours after the Germans had retreated.

Brian O’Regan was a member of that unit. Earlier, at Normandy, he had found a film can on the beach marked “Grant No. 1,” and the contents turned out to be the iconic footage by Bill Grant of Canadians landing at Bernieres-sur-mer, the first images of D-Day the world saw. Later, Brian was the subject of a world scoop photo at the Elbe River linkup between the U.S. and Soviet armies.

Shooters recounts that several cameramen died in action and many more were wounded in various campaigns. One was filming from a reconnaissance plane when he was shot by a German fighter. The camera keeps running as it falls to the floor of the cockpit.