Saving Face

The trenches of World War I represented warfare on a new scale and produced facial wounds in numbers never seen before. This Top Shelf doco examines the legacy of Sir Harold Gillies and Henry Pickerill — NZ surgeons who founded modern reconstructive plastic surgery while treating these injuries — and of Sir Archibald McIndoe and Rainsford Mowlem who continued this work during World War II. This excerpt focuses on Gillies and Pickerill, and the rediscovery of the remarkable surgical models, and watercolour paintings of their patients, they used as teaching aids.

It can be a bit of a cliché to talk about 'Kiwi ingenuity' but these four guys were the real deal, they took their existing surgical know-how and rose to the extraordinary challenges they faced.

– John Hagen (director)

Key Cast & Crew

John Hagen

Director

Vincent Burke

Producer

Sandy Pantall

Editor

Phil Wallington

Creative Producer

Laurie Clarke

Executive Producer

Grant Atkinson

Camera