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Memoirs and Memorials (31)
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Aftermath: The Remnants of WarDaniel Sekulich 2001 56 minThis feature-length documentary reveals the unspoken truth about war - it never really ends. Archival images and personal stories portray the lingering devastation of war. Filmed on location in Russia, France, Bosnia and Vietnam, the film features individuals involved in the cleanup of war: de-miners who risk their lives on a daily basis, psychologists working with distraught soldiers, and scientists and doctors who struggle with the contamination of dioxin used during Vietnam. Based on the Gelber Award-winning book by Donovan Webster, this film conveys the fact that war doesn't end when the fighting stops. -
Chile, Obstinate MemoryPatricio Guzmán 1997 58 minIn this feature documentary, a Chilean filmmaker returns to the motherland for the first time in 23 years. Time is passing. A generation of young Chileans has grown up with no knowledge of the facts surrounding the military coup of September 11, 1973. In his suitcase, The Battle of Chile his 3-part cinéma vérité chronicle of the political tensions in Chile in 1973 and of the violent counterrevolution against the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende. His documentary toured the world but was never seen in Chile. Discreetly, he shows it to his friends and a small group of students. After the screening, the young people are in a state of shock. They have an urgent need to know the truth, for it is they who must build the Chile of tomorrow. In Spanish with English subtitles
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Death by Moonlight: Bomber CommandBrian McKenna 1991 1 h 44 minThis feature-length documentary focuses on the Canadian pilots who served in the air force bomber command in Britain during World War II. From the outset, it was clear to Britain that air combat would be the key factor in the battle against Hitler's Germany. Told they would be targeting factories and military targets, the airmen were actually ordered to drop their payloads on civilians in an attempt to annihilate the enemy. Using interviews, re-enactments, old footage and photographs, Brian McKenna's film depicts the war from the perspective of the pilots.
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Eye Witness No. 461952 11 minThese vignettes from 1952 covered various aspects of life in Canada and were shown in theatres across the country. Subjects included a floating laboratory ship from the National Research Council, a visit by a group of Canadian veterans revisiting Normandy plus events at Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens.
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From Baghdad to Peace CountrySherry LePage 2003 28 minThis documentary is about Canadian artist Deryk Houston, who in 1999, had a life-altering journey to Baghdad. Unable to remain an outside observer of the crisis in Iraq, Deryk travelled to witness first-hand the impact of international sanctions on the Iraqi people. Compelled to speak out, the artist embarked upon a unique nature art project designed to call attention to the situation of the children of Iraq. Using rocks, gravel and hay, Deryk began to create large-scale art installations in the image of a mother and child against diverse landscapes around the world.
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Front Lines - The Life of the Soldier2008 9 minThis short documentary made in 2008 looks at the gruelling life of a soldier in the First World War. The letters home speak of the physical and emotional hardships and the mental strain of what they witness on the battlefield. On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of the year 2008, 90 years will have passed since the signing of the Armistice ending the Great War in Europe. More than 600,000 men and women crossed the Atlantic with the Canadian Expeditionary Force, and more than 60,000 of them never returned. Front Lines features veterans' letters to their families and images from the NFB archives, the Canadian War Museum and Library and Archives Canada.
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Front Lines - Nurses at the Front2008 8 minThis short documentary made in 2008 looks at the role of nurses and health workers during wartime. Long days, brutal injuries and both sad and triumphant outcomes are part of their reality. On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of the year 2008, 90 years will have passed since the signing of the Armistice ending the Great War in Europe. More than 600,000 men and women crossed the Atlantic with the Canadian Expeditionary Force, and more than 60,000 of them never returned. Front Lines features veterans' letters to their families and images from the NFB archives, the Canadian War Museum and Library and Archives Canada.
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Front Lines - Faith and Hope2008 9 minThis short documentary made in 2008 reflects on how religion and faith became a solace to many Canadians serving in the First World War. On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of the year 2008, 90 years will have passed since the signing of the Armistice ending the Great War in Europe. More than 600,000 men and women crossed the Atlantic with the Canadian Expeditionary Force, and more than 60,000 of them never returned. Front Lines features veterans' letters to their families and images from the NFB archives, the Canadian War Museum and Library and Archives Canada.
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Front Lines - The Trenches2008 9 minThis short documentary made in 2008 looks at life in the trenches in the First World War. On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of the year 2008, 90 years will have passed since the signing of the Armistice ending the Great War in Europe. More than 600,000 men and women crossed the Atlantic with the Canadian Expeditionary Force, and more than 60,000 of them never returned. Front Lines features veterans' letters to their families and images from the NFB archives, the Canadian War Museum and Library and Archives Canada.
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Fields of SacrificeDonald Brittain 1963 38 minThis 1964 documentary returns to the battlefields where over 100,000 Canadian soldiers lost their lives in the First and Second World Wars. The film also visits cemeteries where servicemen are buried. Filmed from Hong Kong to Sicily, this documentary is designed to show Canadians places they have reason to know but may not be able to visit. Produced for the Canadian Department of Veteran Affairs by the renowned documentary filmmaker Donald Brittain.
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Front LinesClaude Guilmain 2008 33 minA tribute to the combatants in the First World War, this film traces the conflict through the war diary and private letters of five Canadian soldiers and a nurse. Hearing them, the listener detects between the lines an unspoken horror censored by war and propriety.
The film mingles war footage, historical photos and readings of excerpts from the diary and letters. The directorial talent of Claude Guilmain breathes life into these 90-year-old documents and accompanying archival images so that we experience the human face and heart of the conflict.
For the educational sector, five documentary vignettes have been drawn from the film: Nurses at the Front, The Officer's Role, The Life of the Soldier, Faith and Hope and The Trenches, each with further information on its particular subject. -
Front Lines - The Officer's Role2008 8 minThis short documentary made in 2008 looks at First World War officers. They often wrote reports and updates to headquarters. With all the devastation that they would see, they still needed to encourage their troops to not give up hope. On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of the year 2008, 90 years will have passed since the signing of the Armistice ending the Great War in Europe. More than 600,000 men and women crossed the Atlantic with the Canadian Expeditionary Force, and more than 60,000 of them never returned. Front Lines features veterans' letters to their families and images from the NFB archives, the Canadian War Museum and Library and Archives Canada.
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In Desperate Battle: Normandy 1944Brian McKenna 1992 1 h 43 minThis documentary looks at the events of June 6, 1944, when a combined force of American, British and Canadian troops landed on the beaches of Normandy. The Allied invasion of occupied France was a turning point in the war against Hitler's Germany. From a tactical view, Canada's role was limited; strategically, it was pivotal. Part of the 3-part series The Valour and the Horror.
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Impossible Figures and other stories IMarta Pajek 2021 16 minAn ominous ticking sound triggers an explosion. Wandering deserted city streets, an elegant elderly woman recalls what was and what could have been. The final film (and first part) of Marta Pajek’s acclaimed trilogy, Impossible Figures and other stories I is a mysterious and haunting portrait of personal and societal self-destruction.
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John McCrae's War: In Flanders FieldsRobert Duncan 1998 46 minThis feature documentary profiles poet John McCrae, from his childhood in Ontario to his years in medicine at McGill University and the WWI battlefields of Belgium, where he cared for wounded soldiers. Generations of schoolchildren have recited McCrae’s iconic poem “In Flanders Fields,” but McCrae and Alexis Helmer—the young man whose death inspired the poem—have faded from memory. This film seeks to revive their stories through a vivid portrait of a great man in Canadian history.
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The Knights of OrlandoJelena Popovic 2007 50 minIn this documentary, old comrades in arms exorcise the demons of war with a rousing bout of paintball in the ruins of the hotel Orlando in beautiful Dubrovnik, Croatia. The former soldiers try simultaneously to remember and forget the terrible conflict that plunged Dubrovnik into chaos in 1991 and 1992. Frenetic footage of the bizarre paintball warriors is mixed with real footage of the conflict, offering a troubling look at the insanity of war.
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MemorandumJohn Spotton & Donald Brittain 1965 58 minThis documentary follows a Holocaust survivor in 1965 on an emotional pilgrimage to Bergen Belsen, the last of 11 concentration camps where he was held by the Nazis. He and 30 other former Jewish inmates travel through the new Germany. Scenes still vivid in his mind are recalled in flashback. The memorandum of the title refers to Hitler's memo offering a "final solution" to the "Jewish problem."
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My Yiddish PapiÉléonore Goldberg 2017 7 minA young woman decides not to answer a phone call from her grandfather, unaware that it will be his last. When he dies, she is overwhelmed with guilt and regret and can’t sleep. But then she remembers a promise made long ago: to illustrate his wartime adventures as a member of the French Resistance.
In co-production with Picbois Productions. -
MarthaDaniel Schubert 2020 21 minEven at a frail 90, Martha Katz has an impish energy that remains undiminished. She chides grandson-filmmaker Daniel Schubert over his choice of shirt during a visit to her Los Angeles home, but there’s trauma beneath the humour. At 14, Martha and her family were torn from their village in Czechoslovakia and shipped to Auschwitz. A visit to a Holocaust museum ignites painful memories, including a haunting personal encounter with one of Nazi Germany’s most notorious figures. For Martha, however, the emphasis is on a tough but rewarding postwar life in Winnipeg, which she fondly recalls in this warm, intimate portrait of an unrelenting survivor.
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Minoru: Memory of ExileMichael Fukushima 1992 18 minThe bombing of the American naval base at Pearl Harbor thrust 9-year-old Minoru Fukushima into a world of racism so malevolent he would be forced to leave Canada, the land of his birth. Like thousands of other Japanese Canadians, Minoru and his family were branded as an enemy of Canada, dispatched to internment camps in British Columbia and finally deported to Japan. Directed by Michael Fukushima, Minoru's son, the film combines classical animation with archival material. The memories of the father are interspersed with the voice of the son, weaving a tale of a birthright lost and recovered.
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No More HiroshimaMartin Duckworth 1984 25 minThis short documentary depicts the stories of two hibakusha, survivors of the 1945 atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This film follows them on their mission to New York as representatives of the Japanese Peace Movement at the second United Nations Special Session on Disarmament held in June 1982.
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No More Hibakusha!Martin Duckworth 1983 55 minHibakusha is the Japanese word for the survivors of the American bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This powerful and moving documentary focuses on a few of the eighty hibakusha who journeyed from Japan to New York in June, 1982, to take part in peace demonstrations held to coincide with the Second United Nations Special Session on Disarmament. They came to urge the nations of the world to prevent nuclear war. Instead of concentrating on the physical suffering of the victims, the film reveals the mental anguish of the hibakusha, who are still haunted by nightmares.
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The Physics of SorrowTheodore Ushev 2019 27 minThe Physics of Sorrow tracks an unknown man’s life as he sifts through memories of his youth in Bulgaria through to his increasingly rootless and melancholic adulthood in Canada.
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Remembrance Day Virtual ClassroomDan Thornhill 2016 24 minThe National Film Board of Canada, in collaboration with the Canadian War Museum, OHASSTA, and the Royal Canadian Legion present a recitation of John McCrae’s “In Flanders Fields” to mark the 100-year anniversary of this iconic war poem. One of Canada’s leading film, television and stage actors, R.H. Thomson, will read the poem and moderate the event. Afterwards there is a lively panel discussion, based on your questions, featuring R.H. Thomson, WWI historian Melanie Morin-Pelletier and Master Corporal Martin Rouleau, Medical Technician. This landmark event will underpin the importance of remembrance and explore the relevance of McCrae’s poem in our times.
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Return to DresdenMartin Duckworth 1986 27 minIn 1945, Great Britain and the United States organized a bombing raid that devastated the ancient city of Dresden. This short documentary returns exactly 40 years after its destruction and celebrates its renaissance with the re-opening of one of the most beautiful opera houses in Europe. One guest at this gala was the Canadian navigator of one of the bomber planes, returning to Dresden on a mission of peace that brought him face-to-face with the people who were once his enemies.
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Return to VimyDenis McCready 2017 9 minIn this short film, a young woman visits the Vimy Memorial to make a charcoal imprint of the engraved name of her great-grandfather who was lost in battle. She brings with her a notebook of sketches and diary entries that he made during his preparation for battle. The sketches transform into colourized archive footage and take us back in time to revisit the daily lives of the Canadian Corps soldiers. This project marks the first time the NFB has colourized its own archives for a film project.
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Savage Christmas: Hong Kong 1941Brian McKenna 1991 1 h 44 minIn the autumn of 1941, nearly 2,000 inexperienced Canadian soldiers were sent to Hong Kong at the request of the British government as a symbolic show of strength that would deter a Japanese attack on the colony. Canada's soldiers found themselves in the midst of a desperate battle they could not hope to win. On Christmas Day, 1941, the British colony of Hong Kong officially surrendered to Japan. The surviving defenders became prisoners of war. Over the next three and a half years, many of them would come to envy the dead.
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Unwanted SoldiersJari Osborne 1999 48 minThis documentary tells the personal story of filmmaker Jari Osborne's father, a Chinese-Canadian veteran. She describes her father's involvement in World War II and uncovers a legacy of discrimination and racism against British Columbia's Chinese-Canadian community. Sworn to secrecy for decades, Osborne's father and his war buddies now vividly recall their top-secret missions behind enemy lines in Southeast Asia. Theirs is a tale of young men proudly fighting for a country that had mistreated them. This film does more than reveal an important period in Canadian history. It pays moving tribute to a father's quiet heroism.
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The Van Doos, 100 Years with the Royal 22e RégimentClaude Guilmain 2014 52 minThis documentary marks the 100th anniversary of the Royal 22e Régiment, the only French-speaking Canadian battalion to fight in the First World War. Widely known by its colloquial name, “The Van Doos”, the battalion served with distinction on several fronts, including both world wars, the Korean War, and in numerous U.N. peacekeeping operations. This film offers a moving tribute to both the living veterans and the lost soldiers of the Van Doos. Their personal stories and narratives bring a little-known page of our history books to life. This vibrant elegy features a moving score by Claude Naubert performed live by the regimental formation La Musique du Royal 22e Régiment.
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A War StoryAnne Wheeler 1981 1 h 21 minBased on the diaries of Canadian doctor Ben Wheeler during his internment in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp during World War II, this feature-length docudrama is a glowing account of the spirit and its will to survive physical and mental suffering. The film is comprised of newsreel footage, interviews and dramatic re-enactments.
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With the Canadians in KoreaJulian Biggs 1952 16 minThis short documentary offers a record of the living conditions and military operations of the 25th Canadian Infantry Brigade during the Korean War. The film briefly reviews the unfolding of the war and presents a soldier’s account of front-line conditions.
