Production Background
& The Lost Archive
Grant Ensign portrays James Richardson, VC
in early test footage
Background
Ian & Casey Williams
with Jimmy's pipes in the Officer's Mess, Bay Street Armoury - Victoria, B.C.
- 2023 -
UNPARALLELED VALOUR is a groundbreaking film, painstakingly researched and epic in scope about an ordinary boy who became the most extraordinary of heroes in WWI. Written by his own hand, told in his own words, it is the story of Canada's only piper to earn the Victoria Cross.
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Through gripping cinematic re-enactments UNPARALLELED VALOUR will take audiences into the trench warfare and combat actions of the Canadian Scottish on the battlefields of Belgium and France allowing them to experience first-hand what it is like to be a piper, without a gun, leading men in a charge against deadly enemy fire.
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With Great Britain’s declaration of war on 4th of August 1914, Canada found itself thrust into war. The 50th Gordon Highlanders of Victoria, the 72nd Seaforth’s from Vancouver, and over 200 militias from across Canada were drawn together to form the first Canadian Army. Together they forged a national identity in the mud and blood of WWI. They did it by doing what the British and the French had not been able to do on the battlefields of Vimy Ridge and along the Somme. They pushed the Germans from their trenches with undaunted courage, valour, and an unlikely weapon – the Great Highland Bagpipe. With the aid of Canada’s Highland Regiments whose “instrument of war” inspired a sense of national pride, they went over the top of the trenches, cut through the wire entanglements, and took the German positions.
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UNPARALLELED VALOUR is the story of a young Canadian, Piper James Richardson, who on the 8th of October 1916, during the battle of the Somme, led his regiment into battle without a gun. It is the story of a boy, who with unparalleled valour, picked up a set of bagpipes and stood in the face of deadly enemy fire and turned the tide of war with the defiant sound of the pipes. This is the intimate portrait of a lad from British Columbia, 20 years of age, slight in stature, and with the courage of a giant who helped earn for Canada a new place among the nations of the world. For his actions James Richardson became Canada's only piper to earn the Victoria Cross.
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Initially Paradigm Motion Picture Company began the project as an hour-long documentary that would culminate in the discovery and repatriation of Jimmy’s famous war pipes. When our research was initiated very little was known about James Richardson’s personal war experience beyond the action for which he received the Victoria Cross. “Aside from some family background there were two photographs, two letters, and a few newspaper articles known to exist, and that was all,” recalls Ian Williams. “We felt we would be ready to release the film shortly after the repatriation of his pipes.”
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All that changed once the Academy Award winning team at Paradigm began their thorough research. With initial photography already started, production plans had to be changed. “It was remarkable,” says Ian. “We uncovered an entire archive of documents and photographs that have never been made public, including over 200 pages written by James himself.” This presented Paradigm with an opportunity to expand the scope of the film and allow James to tell his story in his own words. It would mean an increase in the film's budget and a delay in the highly anticipated release. “We could have made the hour-long documentary we set out to make, or we could take this new material and expand our vision for the film and create something truly groundbreaking,” says Casey Williams. “For us the choice was simple.”
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Paradigm is currently engaged in producing a landmark film that will elevate the art of filmmaking.
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“Things have really fallen into place,” acknowledges Ian, “people, places, forgotten photographs and documents have all come together in a way that forces one to consider that perhaps James himself has his hand in this.” The team at Paradigm is passionate about this project. Investing years into his story, they feel they have come to know James in a personal way; something they hope will translate to the audience through the film.
Ian & Casey Williams with
Pipe Major Roger McGuire standing near JImmy's original grave and where Regina Trench once ran. Adanac Cemetery with its trees can be seen in the background.
- 2007-
A few pages and journal written by
James Richardson with his signature on the inside cover.
The Lost Archive
Grant Ensign introduces the Lost Archive in this early promotional clip
Outside of a few brief details from James Richardson’s life, scholars long knew very little about the experiences and events that shaped him into the hero he would become. Over the years, rumors surfaced of an archive—documents and photographs that might reveal more about Canada’s only piper to earn the Victoria Cross. But the collection remained a mystery, lost and undiscovered for nearly a century.
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Remarkably, the Academy Award–winning team at Paradigm Motion Picture Company has now uncovered that missing archive.
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The discovery contains an extensive cache of information—photographs, histories, and personal materials about James Richardson that have remained unknown and unseen. Most astonishingly, it includes more than 200 pages written in Richardson’s own hand, spanning from August 1914 to October 7, 1916. One entry is dated the very day before Jimmy stood with his pipes in the action that would earn him the Victoria Cross.
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After authenticating the archive, Paradigm Motion Picture Company expanded its plans for the James Richardson film to incorporate these firsthand materials. The result will be the most accurate, unprecedented portrait yet of Canada’s only Victoria Cross–winning piper—and of the brutal conditions faced by Richardson and the men of the 16th Battalion during the Great War.
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So what does this mean? It means Unparalleled Valour will tell Jimmy’s story in his own words. It means the film will stand as a lasting tribute to his sacrifice and bravery. And it means audiences will encounter something historically significant: an unparalleled window into the personality, private thoughts, actions, and wartime experience of one of the First World War’s greatest heroes.
Stewards of
James Richardson’s Legacy
James Richardson
72nd Seaforth Highlanders of Canada
Cadet Photo
Paradigm Motion Picture Co. has become the leading authority on the life and legacy of James Richardson, VC, investing more than two decades in focused research. Vice President Ian Williams is a professional bagpiper who began piping at age 11 under Pipe Major Dennis McMaster, where he first learned of Richardson as part of a broader education in piping heritage and regimental history. When rumors surfaced in 2002 that Richardson’s battlefield pipes had been discovered at a school in Scotland, Ian’s competitive piping background and historical interest led him to connect with Pipe Major Roger McGuire of The Canadian Scottish Regiment, the modern inheritors of the 16th Battalion Pipe Band. In 2006, when Roger repatriated Jimmy’s pipes to Canada in a major public ceremony, Paradigm was there to film the event—marking the beginning of a long, immersive journey.
Since then, Ian has traced Richardson’s footsteps from his birthplace in Scotland, to his family home in Canada, to the battlefields of France and Flanders. Along the way he has interviewed descendants, historians, journalists, and anyone with a meaningful connection to Richardson, uncovering a lost archive of wartime letters scattered across various holdings, as well as previously unidentified archival photographs in which James appears. Over time, inquiries about Richardson increasingly led researchers and institutions back to Paradigm; the company is now widely regarded as the primary resource for authoritative information on James Richardson and his story.
Paradigm and Ian Williams have presented for the Western Front Association, consulted on the Belgian-produced short film Sound of the Somme, and contributed to CBC Remembrance Day coverage. Combined with Casey Williams’ Academy Award–recognized command of cinematic storytelling, Paradigm Motion Picture Co. is uniquely positioned to bring the most accurate, emotionally resonant, and visually powerful version of Unparalleled Valour: The Story of James Richardson, VC to the world.
Bring History to Life
CORE HOOK OF THE FILM
REAL LETTERS, REAL VOICE: Paradigm Motion Picture Co. holds exclusive rights to a lost archive of letters written by James Cleland Richardson—teenage immigrant, piper, and Canada’s only Victoria Cross–winning bagpiper.
A HERO WITHOUT A GUN: Jimmy's only “weapon” in the defining moment of his life is a set of bagpipes. His courage is not about killing, but about leading - inspiring others.
THE FILM IS BUILT ON THIS ARCHIVE: James Richardson narrates his own story. Every chapter of the film is structured around his actual letters and words.
We are inviting you to help light a candle where the world has allowed a story to dim.
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We invite you to stand with us in bringing Unparalleled Valour: The Story of James Richardson, VC to the screen — a film that does more than recreate a battle; it gives a voice back to a boy who walked into hell for a future that we now inherit.
James “Jimmy” Richardson was not a general, an officer, or a politician. He was a teenager with a set of bagpipes who left a small town in British Columbia, crossed an ocean, and stepped out of a trench playing the music of home while machine guns tore the air around him. He never came back. The freedoms and prosperity we enjoy today were purchased, in part, by boys like Jimmy who answered a nation’s call and did not live to see the world they secured for us.
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Lest We Forget is not a slogan; it is a responsibility.
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Paradigm Motion Picture Co. has spent more than twenty years walking the ground Jimmy walked, finding his letters, and authenticating his battlefield pipes. We hold the lost archive of his own wartime correspondence. The story we’re telling is not mythology; it is history, drawn from his own hand and realized through award-recognized cinematic craft.
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We are now seeking partners who feel, as we do, that some stories must be told on the largest canvas we have. This is an opportunity to support a film with international reach, awards potential, and powerful educational and legacy value — but more than that, it is a chance to ensure that Jimmy Richardson’s courage, and the sacrifice of his generation, are not left to fade into the footnotes of history.
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If this resonates with you — if you believe the world is hungry for true stories of quiet, unassuming heroism — we invite you to join us. Help us bring the sound of Jimmy’s pipes back to life in cinemas around the world, so that generations yet to come will see, hear, and remember.
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Contact us at paradigm.mpc@gmail.com for more details.
