David O’Keefe is the author of One Day in August: The Untold Story Behind Canada’s Tragedy at Dieppe and his most recent book, Seven Days in Hell: Canada’s Battle for Normandy and the Rise of the Black Watch Snipers. Never one to shy away from public exposure, O’Keefe has also been prolific in film and television, creating and collaborating in more than fifteen documentaries. In this wide-ranging interview, O’Keefe discusses the thirty-year journey behind his research into the Black Watch snipers, the benefits and challenges of doing history on film and television and the impact that the pandemic has had on research and public outreach.
David O’Keefe is an award-winning historian, documentarian and professor at Marianopolis College in Westmount, Quebec. He served with the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada in the Canadian Forces in Montreal.
(Feature image: A sniper from “C” Company, 5th Battalion, The Black Watch in position in a ruined building in Gennep, Holland, 14 February 1945. © IWM B 14626).