International College Documentary Film Program

Each year, the non-profit World War II Foundation partners with significant colleges and universities nationwide to introduce young filmmakers to the experience of filming a World War II documentary overseas.

In 2022, The World War II Foundation launched this exciting new educational program with The Newhouse School at Syracuse University and San Diego State University.

In 2023, Syracuse students will be joined by students from the University of Georgia, Davidson College, and the University of Rhode Island on a Foundation film trip to France and Switzerland.

This year’s educational film trip is based on the book Scholars of Mayhem, a true story about an American recruited by one of the Allies’ top spy and Resistance units. The Foundation is making the extraordinary book, based in France around D-Day, into a documentary narrated by actor Greg Kinnear.

The international experience is very hands-on for the students as they take part each day in meeting our foundation’s professional goals while producing individual and group content they will take back and share with their schools and have available for their resume reels when they graduate.

In addition to experiencing the stories of World War II, the students, many of whom have never been out of the United States, also learn about the local culture and history of the country where our filming takes place. How did year one of the World War II Foundation’s new initiative go?

Hear from the Syracuse students below who came with us on our filming trip to Italy to focus on three documentaries, one on the famed Tuskegee Airmen (narrated by Darius Rucker); another focused on the WWII story of late Senator Bob Dole (narrated by Gary Sinise) and another film that will share the story of the long and brutal fight the Allies had in Italy in World War II.