Life at the front – Facebook Watch Party
Remembrance Day - 1918 November, 11th
Centre culturel canadien
November 11th, 2020
On Remembrance Day, as we mark the Armistice Agreement that ended the First World War, we invite you to pay tribute to the Canadian men and women who made the sacrifice of their youth and lives far from their homeland and their families.
Join us on November 11th at 9 pm on our Facebook Page for an evening of online screenings.
Through a programme of three short films, we invite you to immerse yourself in the intimacy and daily life of Canadian soldiers and nurses caught up in the turmoil of war, their harsh living conditions, the fatigue but also the boredom in the trenches, the mixed feelings of courage and fear at the time of the terrible murderous assaults and their meagre hope of a return home despite the suffering and death that surrounds them.
This program is presented in collaboration with the National Film Board of Canada.
Front Lines
Claude Guilmain
Canada / 2008 / 33 min / Documentary / NFB
A 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 Trenches
Claude Cloutier
Canada / 2010 / 6 min / Animation / NFB
This animated short by Claude Cloutier is a pictorial account of an attack on Canadian soldiers during WWI. On the edge of the battlefield, recruits are dreading the order to attack. At the signal, a young soldier leaps into a hell of fire and blood where the earth engulfs both the living and the dead. Blending archival images and Cloutier’s hypnotizing brushstroke, the film is a dazzling illustration of the futility of war.
Return to Vimy
Denis McCready
2017 / 9 min / NFB / Documentary
In 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.
To go further, we invite you to discover on the Canadian War Museum website, the online exhibition “Canada and the First World War” .