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World War II - The Home Front (14)
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Banshees Over CanadaJames Beveridge 1943 19 minThis newsreel documentary made during WWII was used to illustrate Britain's preparations for an air attack. Scenes depict destruction wrought by enemy planes, the efficiency of retaliation by the Royal Air Force and the precautions taken in Canada against possible air attack. Part of the Canada Carries On series. -
Barbed Wire and MandolinsNicola Zavaglia 1997 48 minThis documentary introduces us to Italian-Canadians whose lives were disrupted and uprooted by seclusion in internment camps during the Second World War. On June 10, 1940, Italy entered WWII. Overnight, the Canadian government came to see the country's 112,000 Italian-Canadians as a threat to its national security. The RCMP rounded up thousands of people it considered fascist sympathizers. Seven hundred of them were held for up to three years in internment camps, most of them at Petawawa, Ontario. None were ever charged with a criminal offence. Remarkably, the former internees are not bitter as they look back on the way their own country treated them.
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Bird of PassageMartin Defalco 1966 10 minA young Japanese-Canadian businessman, now established in Montréal, recalls the time during World War II when the Japanese-Canadian community of Canada's west coast was uprooted and moved inland. There are some flashbacks to the events he describes, but the film is mainly about his home and family life in Montréal and his successful career as a chemical engineer.
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Turning the TideTerence Macartney-Filgate 1995 53 minTurning the Tide documents the years between the outbreak of WWII in September 1939 and June 1944. A compilation of modern day interviews interspersed with photographs and footage from the war, this documentary covers landmark events such as the Battle of Britain, the raid on Dieppe, the landing in Sicily and the battle for Ortona. It focuses on both the Canadian soldiers, sailors and airmen who fought in the war and the women who became part of the war effort, either by enlisting or by going to work in the factories and shipyards.
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Canada Remembers - Part One - Turning the Tide (Educational Version)Terence Macartney-Filgate 1995 55 minMen and machines begin the move down to the Channel coast of England. Naval vessels gather, air raids are mounted on German positions and routes of supply. The long-awaited D-Day invasion is about to begin. The camera pans the faces of Canadian soldiers, sailors and airmen who travelled across the ocean to play their part in the fight. Meanwhile, the wives and children they left behind have found their own way to become part of the war effort--by joining up themselves, or by going to work in the factories and shipyards.
Turning the Tide takes us from the outbreak of war in September 1939 to June 1944, when the allied armies landed in Normandy to fight the Germans in history's largest seaborne invasion. Among the landmark events of the years between, covered by combat cameramen, are the Battle of Britain, the tragic raid on Dieppe, the landing in Sicily, and the battle for Ortona. Interspersed with archival footage are the vivid memories of men and women who recall life during the war years. Part one of the series. -
The LiberatorsTerence Macartney-Filgate 1995 54 minThe Liberators focuses on WWII during the period between June and December 1944. While following the action from the D-Day landings on the shores of Normandy up into Belgium and Holland, the film also highlights the contributions of the women who remained on the homefront. As the fourth largest producer of armaments among the Allied countries, Canada spent much of the war evolving into a formidable industrial nation.
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Canada Remembers - Part Two - The Liberators (Educational Version)Terence Macartney-Filgate 1995 55 minJune to December, 1944. After years of dedication and sacrifice, an Allied victory seems tantalizingly close. The Liberators accompanies Canadian soldiers from their D-Day landings on the shores of Normandy, up along the coast of northern France and into Belgium and Holland. The film also visits the homefront in Canada, where the war effort was transforming the country into a formidable industrial nation--the fourth largest producer of armaments among the Allied countries. In achieving this, women played a leading role, with almost one million in the work force by 1944.
The Second World War changed the way Canadian women saw themselves and, indeed, the way the country as a whole saw itself--a young nation that had now become much more mature and self-confident. Interspersed with archival footage are the vivid memories of men and women who recall life during the war years. Part two of the series. -
The Enemy WithinEva Colmers 2003 52 minThis feature-length documentary looks at German POWs from the WWII who were housed in 25 camps across Canada. Filmmaker Eva Colmers follows her father's story - Theo Melzer - who spent three and a half years in a POW camp in Lethbridge, Alberta. Growing up in Germany, she had always been puzzled by her father's fond memories of his POW life, so when she moved to Canada, she set out to rediscover this story. What she found surprised her. Watch as Theo Melzer, along with other POWs, recount how their lives were changed by the unexpected respect and dignity they received at the hands of their Canadian captors.
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How They Saw Us: Women at WarAnn Pearson 1977 10 minThis 1942 British film, Women at War, contrasts sharply with similar Canadian productions. It accepts women's direct participation in the war effort as a natural outgrowth of their peacetime occupations.
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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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The Pacifist Who Went to WarDavid Neufeld 2002 51 minThis documentary is the story of two Mennonite brothers from Manitoba who were forced to make a decision in 1939, as Canada joined World War II. In the face of 400 years of pacifist tradition, should they now go to war? Ted became a conscientious objector while his brother went into military service. Fifty years later, the town of Winkler dedicates its first war memorial and John begins to share his war experiences with Ted.
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Rosies of the NorthKelly Saxberg 1999 46 minThey raised children, baked cakes... and built world-class fighter planes. Thousands of women from Thunder Bay and the Prairies donned trousers, packed lunch pails and took up rivet guns to participate in the greatest industrial war effort in Canadian history. Like many other factories across the country from 1939 to 1945, the shop floor at Fort William's Canadian Car and Foundry was transformed from an all-male workforce to one with forty percent female workers.
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Seven Brides for Uncle SamAnita McGee 1997 52 minThis documentary shares the stories of seven women from Newfoundland who married American soldiers. From the beginning of World War II to the end of the Cold War, Newfoundland housed some of the largest military bases outside of the U.S. As a result, as many as 40,000 Newfoundland women married American soldiers. Using a combination of interviews and old war footage, Seven Brides for Uncle Sam shows how some of the most important events in world history can serve as the backdrop to the timeless tales of romance, heartbreak and joy.
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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.
