By: Pam Wright, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Chatham Voice
Making the documentary ‘Dresden 1957’ is a milestone for Eric Philpott.
Not only does it mark the lives of six Dutch immigrants who died in the deadly excavation cave-in, but it also honours his father Keith who, was a young site engineer heading up a job for the first time.
“I actually feel quite connected to both sides of this story,” the filmmaker told The Voice in a telephone interview from his Toronto home. “I feel very strongly that I can do something about it for my father.”
The documentary tells the largely forgotten story of a collapse that killed six men. Five families were affected, with one family, losing both a son and a father. The tragedy took place along the banks of the Sydenham River on Aug. 14, during the construction of a new pumping station, part of Dresden’s waterworks.
In the works since 2023, the film is now ready for post production, which will take another year. In order to complete the next phase, Philpott has launched a crowdfunding campaign with a goal of $60,000 to get the project over the finish line.
According to Philpott his interest was piqued when he learned about the disaster during a casual discussion with his mother. Later, he found his father’s diary, who at age 24, wrote about the cave-in and the following eight months of construction with the clarity of an engineer’s mind.
Extensive research by Philpott into the incident supports the facts laid out by his father, inspiring him to document one of Ontario’s worst workplace tragedies.
His father, who was born in England and lived in London throughout the Second World War, married his mother, who was an immigrant from Holland. Because he is half Dutch and son of an immigrant, Philpott feels a kinship with the men who died in Dresden and their families.
“There were certain things about my father I didn’t understand, but after reading the diary and doing the research, I have a better understanding,” he said, adding he believes the incident marked his father for life.
Philpott said his father tried to warn the higher ups the excavation could give way, but no one listened and disaster struck only two weeks into the project.
He’s learned a lot from diving into a story and hopes the film will bring awareness to safety in the workplace in order to prevent similar tragedies from taking place.
“While the Dresden tragedy occurred sometime ago, the question it raises are, unfortunately, still relevant today,” Philpott said. “Workers are still dying on the job, immigrants are disproportionately more vulnerable, and public awareness of the toll that workplace tragedies take is still very low in Canada. We hope this film will change that.”
With the help of senior editor Joseph Crawford, Philpott began working on the film in 2023. The project was entirely self-funded for the first year. Successful crowd funding in 2024 allowed the team to hire cinematographer Pawel Kacprzak, who filmed in Dresden and other locations in southwestern Ontario, conducting nearly 40 interviews.
“Since starting work on this project we’ve made countless fascinating discoveries,” Philpott explained. “We’ve found television footage of the tragedy, which we certainly didn’t know existed, and witnesses who we didn’t think were still alive. And we’ve had tremendous support from the community; for example, one volunteer found the original engineering drawings for the pumping station, several of which were done by my father.”
In December 2024, the team completed a 3D scan of the riverbank where the tragedy occurred, allowing them to create visual representations of site as it was in 1957.
The crowdfunding campaign for Dresden 1957 runs until Nov. 28. Anyone interested in supporting this project can contribute at https://dresden1957.com/crowdfunding-for-dresden-1957
