Both the roots of The Hurricane Choir and the subsequent documentary can be traced back long before the storms that ravished the Gulf Coast of the United States in 2005. Many will be very surprised that it goes much further back, in fact, back to the dark stormy days of World War II.  

It is mid 1942 and St. Valentines day is less than 2 days away. For many this year it would not be celebrated as it would become the day their lives would change forever and for others, their day of death. The British Empires strong hold in the city of Singapore would fall the day after St. Valentines Day. There would be many losses when Japanese Imperial Forces finally enter the city center with brute speed and force, but the greatest indignity would come to those who survived. Singapore has been under heavy attack by an armada of Imperial Bombers for many weeks. The British and Australian Army garrisons stationed there protecting the Empires interests, had fought to the last bullet to allow the many hundreds of British and Australian Army nurses & civilians to evacuate along with the thousands of civilians from many countries, including Holland. They left in both sailing vessels and motorized ships not designed to carry civilians packed to the brim. Some like the now sadly famous SS Vyner Brooke, were designed to carry 12 passangers, were now crammed with over 300 evacuees, mostly women and children. The luckier vessels successfully weaved drunkenly out of the harbour through the bombs that fell like hail and bullets that pelted like heavy rain which the Japanese Air Force unleashed upon them.

Bound for the illusional safety of the vast Indian Ocean and then onward to the safety of Australia, many ships instead found their way to bottom of the ocean as they were relentlessly pursued by countless Japanese fighters and dive bombers. For those that survived the entombment of burning ships and ensuing strafing of their makeshift rafts or, just by clinging percarilously to their colleagues life vests, this was just the beginning. Several days would pass in drifting across shark infested waters before they would finally reach an unfamilar tropical island landfall. Unfortunately for some of the many thousands of salt-soaked, weary and sunburnt survivors, the beaches they landed were infested with gun happy Imperial solders. Many made it to the surf, but not all made the last steps to the warm dry sand they desperately longed to feel beneath their feet. For the thousands more fortunate enough to land on deserted beaches, or to encounter the seemingly rare sympathetic Imperial Japanese units, they were grouped then separated by gender and age. Women and children to one series of trucks, and men to another. The injured and wounded were of course escorted off into the jungle not to be seen again. For many of those family units that had till now remained somewhat in tact were trucked away to different locations, many would never see each other again.

The survivors were taken to the civilian equivalent of a POW camp, known as Internment Camps. In the near 4 years that followed, they were to endure the same terrible hardships as their relatives and friends in the POW camps. On what we now think of as the beautiful island of Sumatra, these camps laid out in great number in the jungle. They held little hope for the women and children held captive inside. Most just had just one set of clothes to wear for their entire captivity. Here the enemy included constant hunger to the point of death, the abundance of disease, sickness and medical neglect saw their weight drop as much as 60% in the first 2 years. Trenches were dug on a daily basis to burry those who sucumbed to ill treatment, disease, depression and malutrition.

After several long boring months in the confides of one such Internment Camp, the meeting of two survivors would change the lives of many thousands of people, and save many hundreds from the death that seemed imminent. A tall striking English woman and wife of a British Soldier, Nora Chambers was also a former member of the London Sympathy Orchestra. A chance meeting with a rather plump and talented English Missionary, Margaret Dryburgh, Nora was to learn that his woman had the very rare ability to memorize large amounts of musical compositions of the great classical composers. She had in fact a photographic memory for music. In the most awful conditions imaginable, they sought refuge in their common interest of music and began composing these classic for a vocal orchestra. They did so in complete secrecy, for to be caught in pursuit of such interests would be a certain death sentence, with no trial.

In pursuit of their new found love, it was impossible to keep secret their activity from their friends and fellow inmates, nor did they wish to, for who else could they muster the voices to sing such praises they were writing? Word, or song as it may have been, soon got round. They found great relief when they sang. The beautiful sound of many voices singing took their minds off their terrible circumstances, it graced them respite and soon it would empower them. It graced them strength and for many, it graced them life. Amazing Grace would also feature in their r'epertoire. It would only be a matter of time before they would defy their Japanese guards and give a concert against the camp commanders rules. Defying the camp rules like this meant torment and certain death, but the members of the Camp Choir grew confident and strong. So began one of the most remarkable and brave choirs in history. Formed in the storms of World War Two and in the most desperate conditions any person could face, these were the roots that would later influence the formation of another group of survivors in another part of the world, in another time. 

As a result of singing in the very unique Camp Choir a vital point was learned - over half of the choir members survived their 4 years in captivity. This wa greater in porportion to non-members. The survivors all attributed a greater reason of their survival as a direct result of singing in the Camp Choir and it's ability to take them beyond their circumstances ...‘beyond the wire’ to a better place, a place that some of them eventually found ....home.

Fast forward to 1991, to a Jazz bar following a film producers meeting in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Hereward Dundas-Taylor (The director of the documentary on the Hurricane Choir), met by chance a fellow aspiring producer, Martin Meader (who was to later help form the Hurricane Choir). Ironically, among the sounds of New Orleans influenced Jazz, they shared their stories on the projects they were developing. Just by chance, Martin in moment of excitement talked about his secret feature film screenplay he was writing called ‘Beyond the Wire’, later successfully marketed as ‘A Voice Cries Out’. It was the story of a group of women interned in a Japanese Interment camp on the island of Saumatra in WWII who formed a vocal choir and used the power of music to take them beyond their circumstances and help escape the death and stench around them. Martin's moment of excitment revealing his confidential project may have been influenced by a higher force at work as Hereward, amazed to hear Martin tell such a magnificent tale with intimate passion, was in fact developing the very same project. Along with Martins other screen writing partner, together they worked on all aspects of the project for some months. The film was eventually made and released in 1997 by Fox Searchlight as ‘Paradise Road’ with Glenn Close in the lead role and starring Cate Blanchett among many other great names. Now available on DVD, it was at the time, the most expensive film ever made in Australia and the closest the Australian Film Industry has come to making what was once known as a ‘blockbuster’ format, a film with multiple heavy weight cast of well known international British, Australian and American talent.

Fast forward to August and September, 2005. Hurricane Katrina and Rita have wrecked devastating havoc along some 2,000 miles of Coast line and devastated every town and city in it’s path, many beyond recognition. With many everyday identifiable landmarks gone, home owners have difficulty not just finding the land where their home once stood, but even the very street itself. Conditions are unimaginable and many people begin to experience the early stages of trauma.

The city and suburbs of New Orleans, is lost not only to mother natures extreme force, but also because of controversial artificial reasons bipartisan to the storm. Hundreds of lives are lost and thousands more are incapacited and injuired. The huge urban areas of greater New Orleans bleeds it’s residents and many are separated from their families. Parents from parents, children from parents, children from children and the chaos has only just begun. For many, the separation will last weeks and even months. In the catastrophe, many beloved pets are also lost and, those that survive many will also suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress in ways that mirror that of the people in sufferance.

In the opening weeks of September, Martin Meader calls relentlessly from Perth, Western Australia, to seek contact with his friend, Terry Morse, a resident of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Just an hour or so north of New Orleans, it is also the closest city to the ravaged ‘N’Orrlins’. He is worried about her safety and it takes Martin a week just to make contact. Finding that she is safe, they discuss the situation. They feel that singing might help ease the pain for some of these people in desperate need. If singing, as demonstrated in the film 'Paradise Road' could be implemented in those atrocious wartime conditions to help cope with the suffering in the Internment Camp, then could it apply to people suffering and entering FEMA Parks following the war mother nature has waged with these massive storms?

A week later, Martin calls to the other side of the country for his long term friend and film colleague of many years, Hereward. Hereward has been watching the disaster unfold on CNN and every news bulletin across the vast Australian television networks. Martin explains the concept of the Hurricane Choir to him. He knows Hereward is already very familiar to the healing power of music through the film, Paradise Road. They both have a great understanding and belief of the way it can empower people in trauma and adversity, how it can be used as a tool to over come and take people to another place, beyond the wire, beyond the flooding, beyond the tragic circumstances, the death and the destruction. They know it won't change the devistation, but it may go a long way in helping the mental health aspects of the people and maybe empower them from victim to survivor. Martin asks him to make the documentary and to film the process of the choir coming together. Hereward is asked to submit a one page synopsis on how he would see the documentary unfold and what kind of narrative he would deploy to tell the story if he would direct the film.

This quite simply, is how the documentary and the thought of the Hurricane Choir came to being. The synopsis Hereward wrote can be found on this website and it still applies today as the documentary soon enters it’s next videoography phase.  

Due to the interest of a growing number of curious people. A list of books for further reading on the brave women in the interment camp, many of which were used to research the films screenplay, are listed here:

Helen Colijn, Song of survival, (London: Headline, 1997).

Betty Jeffrey, White coolies : an account of the true story which inspired the film Paradise Road, (Pymble, N.S.W. : Angus & Robertson, 1997).

http://www.awm.gov.au/journal/j32/nelson.htm

http://www.paloaltoonline.com/weekly/morgue/cover/1995_Oct_11.COVER11.html

http://kzsu.stanford.edu/~romain/paradise.html

http://www.janson.com/dvd/show_title.php?pid=20268

http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/reviewsw109.htm

http://www.angellpro.com.au/Jeffrey.htm

http://www.geocities.com/dutcheastindies/bangka_massacre.html

And a transcript from an ABC current affairs program, The 7:30 Report, on former Australian Army Nurse and camp internee, Vivian Bullwinkel the day after she passed away. The article is entitled 'Nurse Bullwinkel remembered for heroism and humanity'

http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/stories/s148321.htm