Óscar Galansky – Living History Re-enactor

UPDATE: Oscar Galansky has been extremely busy digging into the history of the Canadian Army Film & Photo Unit. Oscar recently contacted me to share a video documentary that he recently produced about the unit. Please note, the videos are originally in Spanish, but are available with subtitles in English. The video has been created in two parts;

Part one of two : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QRsoKQNvnQ&feature=youtu.be

Part two of two : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iIPptJezMU

Oscar, I commend you on this two-part documentary about the men and women of the CFPU. It is with great pleasure to see young people such as yourself, and your colleagues, make the effort to remember those who gave so much at such a crucial time in our history, that the people of today can enjoy their freedom. Bravo!

Originally Posted: 10 November, 2018

This Remembrance Day, I wanted to post this story about a young man in Spain, Oscar Galansky, an historical re-enactor and filmmaker, who posed as a Sgt. cameraman of the CFPU during a re-enactment in Spain this past summer;

“I wanted to share with you this experience. It was a Living History event; 3 days and 2 nights in a field at an abandoned village in Spain. I took pictures & videos of each activity with my modern camera but also with an analog camera.” Óscar also submitted a photo of one of the CFPU cameramen; Sgt. R.H.C. Angelo, because as he says; “I write to you again to ask you if you know the name of this Sgt (it appeared on the Canadian Army Newsreel, No. 49 – 1944). I think he’s RHC Angelo, but normally he used glasses. Do you also know when and where this scene was filmed ? My interest it’s quite “funny”: he resembles me pretty much !!”

“I have two passions in life: History and cinema. I work as a filmmaker and I have been a Historical re-enactor for 10 years. So, it seemed natural to take both together. That’s how I started a video blog on YouTube called, “Tropa Guripa”. For the last season I spent a year in Normandy, France, to learn all about this battle. There I came across the amazing work of the CFPU (Canadian Film & Photo Unit) for the first time when I began my research (it’s fantastic that the Canadian Army Newsreel are available on YouTube!). Well, actually I was familiar with much of their footage but I didn’t know it was shot by Canadian soldiers, and I was on the same spots where they filmed 73 years ago! The decisive push came when a friend gave me a book about allied combat cameramen”Camera au combat” by Gilbert Gallez. After that I started to search for information about each CFPU member.

So, some months ago I began a new reenactment project; I decided to represent a CFPU Sergeant combat cameraman in Normandy (I feel more comfortable as a cine filmmaker more than a stills photographer). In a short space of time I obtained a uniform, and in June I had the opportunity to represent the CFPU for the first time. It was in a Living History event in Spain where we reenacted British and Canadian troops in Normandy. Of course, I was the video/photographer of the event.