TRAINED TO SEE – THREE WOMEN AND THE WAR
At the end of World War II, for the first time in history, women journalists are allowed to report directly from the front. Their accounts show a female subtext which forever changes our perception of war.
When towards the end of 1943 the British government accredits almost 500 reporters and photographers to cover the Normandy invasion, there is not a single woman among them. The Americans, however, are more progressive. Convinced of the influence of their leading magazines, they give female journalists press credentials for the first time in history. On their way along and through the frontlines of WWII, war reporters Martha Gellhorn, Margret Bourke-White and Lee Miller repeatedly meet in press offices and bombed-out cities like Cologne, Leipzig or Munich. They witness the liberation of the Ravensbrück, Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps. Committed to the cause for which their country has entered the war, they shape the still young genre of photojournalism with personal reports and photographs. Their style added a personal touch to war reporting. It is through their eyes that we see defeated and liberated Germany. For the first time in history war reporting has a "female subtext" which forever changes our perception of war as the "father of all things". Trained To See - Three Women and the War is the first documentary about this phenomenon: war from a new perspective.