QPSW campaigner takes to the airwaves
Ellis Brooks, from QPSW, has spoken to the media about the film War School
Ellis Brooks, from Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW), has spoken on the radio this month about the new documentary War School, which previewed at Friends House in London.
The peace education coordinator spoke to Radio Bristol, Cumbria, York, Coventry and Warwickshire, Lancashire, Leeds, Norfolk, Wiltshire, and Radio Three Counties, as well as Radio Kent where he took part in a follow-up debate with the Falklands veteran Simon Weston. The Radio Kent presenter, Duncan Larcombe, is a former defence editor for The Sun.
Ellis Brooks told the Friend that he hoped the film would ‘encourage debate and denormalise the idea war is unavoidable’. He said: ‘One question I was asked a lot was: why is the film being released now, during the world war one centenary? My response was: what better time? If we are engaging as a nation in reflecting on war and its consequences, then what can we learn about the causes of war and how we can prevent the next war from taking place?’
War School was made by Mic Dixon and part-funded by Network for Social Change. It uses archive and observation to ‘challenge the narrative of war’ and features QPSW members, including Ellis Brooks, Marigold Bentley, Sam Walton and Isabel Cartwright, as well war veterans and Veterans for Peace UK members.
Ellis Brooks said the presence of these people made the film ‘authentic and representative’. He added: ‘We wanted to amplify these voices because they’ve experienced being in the cadets, being deployed and trained, and the consequences of those memories.’
