Large-scaled multi-episode documentaries on the Second World War generally operates with the variety of sources - from archives of national war newsreel and propaganda to accidental amateur shots, lost for decades on the attic. "Shooting the war" documentary narrows the focus of our attention to the footage, took by hobby filmmakers of Great Britain and Germany. Taped stories on the opposite sides of the WW2 now depict true everyday life and live emotions - both war and civil. Fragments of life of the families, soldierly friendship, children's parties, horrors of war within the streets of bomb attacked British and German cities, pictures of the Holocaust. History of "big" War is being depicted by means of private examples of "small" people, who were destined to live and fight within the 1940s.
MEN. Amateur hobby footage of Men of the Second World War presents the stories of sons, husbands, fathers, brothers and nephews who were called out to serve and defend their motherland. These brave filmmakers often got shots which would never become a part of authorized war newsreel. Terrible and stunning aftermath of the bomb attacked Hamburg, caught on camera of the local fireman Hans Brunswig. Rare small in number footage of the mass murders in the East. Scene of the British exodus from Burma, looks like a catastrophe and a chase through the jungle. Cheerful footage of soldiers, who drink bear, shave themselves, sail down the river, laugh and pose on camera. Guests interviewed comprise children and nephews of the former war filmmakers, as well as historians and researchers, and some still alive elderly cameramen. These personal commentaries of the own seventy-year old footage encolour "Shooting the War" with historical intimacy.
CHILDREN. The very small representatives of two barricades of the WW2 perceived the events of 1930-1940-s as a unique world of adventure, strongly different aside the realities of the "adults". Senior people over 70 bring call to memory of the war times and emotions, still closely connected. Gas masks routine, lessons of civil air defense, playing games within the sites of private bomb shelters, evacuation to the rural. Revealing these shot of children and teen-agers, sometimes taken by themselves, we examine the blind side of the war, generally out of interest for war newsreel. Former "children" of the 1940-s now emphasize a poor understanding of the reality in that times. They feel frustration recollecting insincere notifications on the death of their fathers "in the name of the nation". Some still cannot accept own survival by means of another child's death under the ruins of bombed school.
WOMEN. Documentary footage, which have been taken by women and depicting women, now turns to be the most variable, leaving only military actions out. Elderly British woman tells how she has fulfilled her dream to join aviation and to be in charge of the Spitfire, despite all the prejudices and obstacles. Millions of women were called to work within the factories, compensating growing demand of "free hands". War gave them more rights and ways rather than years of struggle before. One story deeps in a passionate love between a young British girl and Afro-American soldier, temporarily quartered in Foggy Albion. Severities of the civil front, horrors of the Nazi concentration camps, dancing shows in front of the soldiers, child rearing and education, travelling and posing on camera.