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World War II (64)

  • Atlantic Crossroads
    Atlantic Crossroads
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    Tom Daly 1945 10 min
    This short documentary focuses on Newfoundland's role in WWII. Due to its geographical position, Newfoundland became a central point of activity during the war, housing military air bases and becoming the link between the Allied forces and Europe. In stark contrast with the Depression in the 1930s, this film highlights Newfoundland's opportunities for economic growth during, and after, the war. Part of the Canada Carries On series.
  • Break-through
    Break-through
    1944 11 min
    Allied troops land on the Normandy coast and drive eastward to the gates of Germany. Opening scenes are of the D-Day landings and establishment of Canadian forces on the beachhead. Pictures of bitter street fighting and of pin-point bombing tell the story of Caen's capture and the advance towards Falaise. Made from footage filmed by units of the Canadian Army Overseas.
  • Barbed Wire and Mandolins
    Barbed Wire and Mandolins
    Nicola Zavaglia 1997 48 min
    This 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.
  • Canada Remembers - Part Three - Endings and Beginnings - Educational Version
    Canada Remembers - Part Three - Endings and Beginnings - Educational Version
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    Terence Macartney-Filgate 1995 51 min
    Paratroopers dropping down to fight beyond the Rhine ushered in the final phase of the war in Europe, a war that was in its sixth year. In Endings and Beginnings, veterans recount their memories of that conflict, in combination with outstanding footage filmed by army cameramen at the front. VE-Day--victory in Europe--on May 8, 1945, saw exuberant celebrations in Canadian cities, but there was still the war in the Far East to be won.

    The film documents Canada's contributions toward that goal, which was finally achieved four months later. In the aftermath of the war, a confident Canadian industry converted to peacetime purposes. But, on the personal level, peace could be intimidating. A former sailor recalls, "The big objective was to get the uniform off and get a job. I had to learn a whole new set of rules and a whole new way of living--very quickly." Interspersed with archival footage are the vivid memories of men and women who recall life during the war years. Part three of the series.
  • Canada at War, Part 8: New Directions
    Canada at War, Part 8: New Directions
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    1962 27 min
    December 1943 - June 1944. Canada, war-seasoned, girds for the final assault. In London, Commonwealth prime ministers meet and Mackenzie King holds out for Canadian independence in foreign policy. In the Arctic, Canadian ships sail the Murmansk run with supplies for beleaguered Russia. The Italian campaign intensifies. In the south of England the Allies poise for attack.
  • Canada at War, Part 12: V Was for Victory
    Canada at War, Part 12: V Was for Victory
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    1962 27 min
    April-August 1945. Hitler had said: 'Whoever lights the torch of war in Europe can wish for nothing but chaos.' By 1945, Germany is beaten. V-Day celebrations verge on the hysterical, but occupying armies uncover the staggering atrocities of Belsen, Auschwitz, and Buchenwald. Franklin D. Roosevelt dies. The world's first atomic bomb is dropped on Japan.
  • Canada at War, Part 6: Turn of the Tide
    Canada at War, Part 6: Turn of the Tide
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    1962 27 min
    October 1942 - July 1943. The inherent strength of the Allies begins to be felt. Canadian munitions factories operate at peak capacity. U.S. Marines land on Guadalcanal and the Solomons. Montgomery's 8th Army strikes Rommel at Alamein; the R.C.A.F. joins in air strikes against Germany.
  • Canada at War, Part 7: Road to Ortona
    Canada at War, Part 7: Road to Ortona
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    1962 27 min
    July 1943 - January l944. The objective at last--Fortress Europe. The Canadian 1st Division, flanked by the British and Americans, pushes into Italy. Italians surrender but the Germans resist. Ortona, a 15th-century town, riddled with bullets and grenades, is taken by Canadians in fierce and costly street fighting.
  • Canada at War, Part 2: Blitzkrieg
    Canada at War, Part 2: Blitzkrieg
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    1962 27 min
    April - November 1940. With devastating speed Germany takes Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg. Italy declares war. The British withdraw from Dunkirk. Mackenzie King feels the Canadian pulse on conscription. England is strafed by the Luftwaffe, and Britons accept Churchill's challenge of 'blood, sweat and tears.'
  • Canada Remembers Part Three: Endings and Beginnings
    Canada Remembers Part Three: Endings and Beginnings
    Terence Macartney-Filgate 1995 49 min
    Part three of a 3-part series, Canada Remembers, Endings and Beginnings focuses on the final phase of WWII in Europe in 1945 and the aftermath. Veterans recount their memories of the conflict at the Rhine and the celebrations on VE Day, followed by their contribution to the victory in the Far East. These recollections are complemented by outstanding footage filmed by army cameramen. The film also focuses on what transpired after the war, when the soldiers had to reintegrate back into society.
  • Canada Remembers - Part Two - The Liberators (Educational Version)
    Canada Remembers - Part Two - The Liberators (Educational Version)
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    Terence Macartney-Filgate 1995 55 min
    June 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.
  • Canada at War, Part 1: Dusk
    Canada at War, Part 1: Dusk
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    1962 27 min
    1936 - March 1940. In Europe war clouds gather as Germany re-arms and Hitler propounds his 'master race' doctrine. Chamberlain's appeasement fails. Germany overruns Czechoslovakia. Britain declares war; Canada makes an independent decision to join. The first Canadian troopship sails from Halifax.
  • Canada at War, Part 5: Ebbtide
    Canada at War, Part 5: Ebbtide
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    1962 27 min
    July - September 1942. A time of defeat and disaster. Hitler is at the apex of his power. A Canadian division probes at Dieppe and is repulsed with heavy casualties. Canadian factories take over production of the fabled Lancaster night bomber; Canadian bush pilots ferry the big planes across the Atlantic. German U-boats penetrate the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
  • Canada Remembers - Part One - Turning the Tide (Educational Version)
    Canada Remembers - Part One - Turning the Tide (Educational Version)
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    Terence Macartney-Filgate 1995 55 min
    Men 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.
  • Canada Remembers Part Two: The Liberators
    Canada Remembers Part Two: The Liberators
    Terence Macartney-Filgate 1995 54 min
    Part two of a 3-part series, Canada Remembers, The 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.
  • Canada at War, Part 13: The Clouded Dawn
    Canada at War, Part 13: The Clouded Dawn
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    1962 27 min
    August 1945 - 1946. Japan surrenders. World War II is over, but the scars are deep. Canadian prisoners are released from Japanese war camps. In Canada, as elsewhere, the monumental task of rehabilitation begins. In Ottawa the Gouzenko case shocks the nation. The trials at Nürenberg begin. The United Nations is formed. Canada, now a much stronger, independent nation, enters the Cold War.
  • Canada at War, Part 11: Crisis on the Hill
    Canada at War, Part 11: Crisis on the Hill
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    1962 27 min
    September 1944 - March 1945. On the eve of victory Canada faces an internal crisis: an acute shortage of men for overseas service precipitates the conscription issue, threatens national unity and the King government. In Europe, Canadian divisions fight their way to the top of the Italian boot, then regroup for the final onslaught on Germany. They fight in the battles of the Reichswald and Hochwald forests, and finally cross the Siegfried Line.
  • Canada at War, Part 3: Year of Siege
    Canada at War, Part 3: Year of Siege
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    1962 27 min
    September 1940 - October 1941. The Battle of the Atlantic begins. German U-boats take their toll of Canadian convoys. The purge of Jews begins. German armies march into Russia. Mackenzie King is booed at Aldershot. Men of the Winnipeg Grenadiers and Royal Rifles leave for a fateful mission in Hong Kong.
  • Canada Remembers Part One: Turning the Tide
    Canada Remembers Part One: Turning the Tide
    Terence Macartney-Filgate 1995 53 min
    Part one of a 3-part series, Canada Remembers, Turning 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.
  • Canada at War, Part 10: Cinderella on the Left
    Canada at War, Part 10: Cinderella on the Left
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    1962 27 min
    June - December 1944. V-1 rockets, and later V-2s, rain death and destruction on Britain; their launching sites are mopped up by Canadians advancing on Pas de Calais. The Third Division spearheads the attack on the Scheldt estuary. Germans make a last-ditch stand in the Battle of the Bulge. In the English Channel, Canadian sailors man swift motor torpedo boats against German E-boats.
  • Canada at War, Part 4: Days of Infamy
    Canada at War, Part 4: Days of Infamy
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    1962 27 min
    December 1941 - June 1942. The war is now global and pressures on Canada mount. Without warning Japan strikes at Pearl Harbor. Canadians adjust to food rationing, salvage drives. The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan is inaugurated in Canada. In Ottawa, Winston Churchill makes his 'some chicken, some neck' speech.
  • Canada at War, Part 9: The Norman Summer
    Canada at War, Part 9: The Norman Summer
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    1962 27 min
    June - September 1944. D-Day, June 6, 1944. In early morning hours, infantry carriers, including one hundred and ten ships of the Royal Canadian Navy, cross a seething, pitching sea to the coast of France while Allied air forces pound enemy positions from the air. Cherbourg, Caen, Carpiquet, Falaise, Paris are liberated. Canadians return, this time victorious, to the beaches of Dieppe.
  • Canadian Army Newsreel Issue No. 6
    Canadian Army Newsreel Issue No. 6
    1942 9 min
    This newsreel includes the following sequences: 1. Lady Patricia Ramsay Inspects PPCLI 2. Pigeon Post 3. Bringing in the Sheaves 4. Canadians Meet Norwegians in Soccer Play-Downs 5. British Mayors Visit Canadian Troops 6. Little Girls and Big Guns 7. Turn on the Heat 8. Massed Bands Open "Wings for Victory" Week
  • Canadian Army Newsreel Issue No. 7
    Canadian Army Newsreel Issue No. 7
    1943 9 min
    This newsreel includes the following sequences: 1. Black Watch Easter Service 2. Medical Inspection 3. Army Soccer Finals 4. Baseball Season Opens 5. The King's Farm 6. Tunnellers Receive Gibraltar Keys 7. Khaki Close-ups 8. Man of Vimy
  • Death by Moonlight: Bomber Command
    Death by Moonlight: Bomber Command
    Brian McKenna 1991 1 h 44 min
    This 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.
  • Enemy Alien
    Enemy Alien
    Jeanette Lerman 1975 26 min
    This documentary tells the story of the frustration and injustice experienced by Japanese Canadians, who fought long and hard to be accepted as Canadians.
  • The Enemy Within
    The Enemy Within
    Eva Colmers 2003 52 min
    This 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.
  • Fields of Sacrifice
    Fields of Sacrifice
    Donald Brittain 1963 38 min
    This 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.
  • Forgotten Warriors
    Forgotten Warriors
    Loretta Todd 1997 51 min
    This documentary introduces us to thousands of Indigenous Canadians who enlisted and fought alongside their countrymen and women during World War II, even though they could not be conscripted. Ironically, while they fought for the freedom of others, they were being denied equality in their own country and returned home to find their land seized.

    Loretta Todd's poignant film offers forth the testimony of those who were there, and how they managed to heal.
  • Fighting Norway
    Fighting Norway
    Sydney Newman 1943 10 min
    During World War II Norwegian patriots struck at Germany from the rear, linking Canada, the United States and Britain with Soviet Russia. Norwegian resources around the world were mobilized, and at Canadian training stations Norwegian airmen forged a lasting friendship between the two countries. Includes footage from the British film All for Norway.
  • He Plants for Victory
    He Plants for Victory
    1943 2 min
    This animated short focuses on Mrs. Plugger, who is eager to start her own Victory Garden. Reminding her that tools are hard to get and that neither of them know much about gardening, Plugger organizes his neighbours to cultivate vegetables in a vacant lot. A message about the importance of cooperation and knowledge sharing . . . especially during war time.
  • Home Front
    Home Front
    Stanley Hawes 1940 11 min
    This short documentary is part of the Canada Carries On series of morale-boosting wartime propaganda films. In Home Front, the various WWII-era social contributions of women are highlighted. From medicine to industrial labour to hospitality, education and domesticity, the service these women provided to their country is lauded.
  • Headline Hunters
    Headline Hunters
    1945 11 min
    This short film from 1945 demonstrates how broadcasters and journalists relayed war news back to Canada. It includes glimpses of the complex organization behind them - the military PR directors, the censors, dispatch riders, engineers and the Canadian Press and British United Press offices.
  • In Desperate Battle: Normandy 1944
    In Desperate Battle: Normandy 1944
    Brian McKenna 1992 1 h 43 min
    This 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.
  • Imperfect Union: Canadian Labour and the Left - Part 3 - Falling Apart and Getting Together
    Imperfect Union: Canadian Labour and the Left - Part 3 - Falling Apart and Getting Together
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    Arthur Hammond 1989 53 min
    World War II turns Canada into an industrial power, and creates a mass trade-union movement. Mackenzie King responds with unemployment insurance and full legal status for unions. In 1944, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation comes to power in Saskatchewan, under Tommy Douglas, the first socialist government in North America. With the formation of the Canadian Labour Congress in 1956, CCF and CLC energies are directed toward the formation of the New Democratic Party in 1961. Part 3 of the series.
  • Lost Over Burma: Search for Closure
    Lost Over Burma: Search for Closure
    Garth Pritchard 1997 46 min
    This documentary follows a mission into the Burmese jungle to recover the remains of a RCAF crew of six young Canadians lost during World War II. Their lives and wartime experiences are recalled through the memories of colleagues and families, who attend the emotion-laden funeral near Rangoon, where the men have finally been laid to rest with full military honours.
  • Letter from Aldershot
    Letter from Aldershot
    John Taylor 1940 9 min
    Part of the Canada Carries On series, this short film portrays the First Division of the Canadian Active Service Force in Aldershot, England. Using an intimate letter home as a narrative device, this film reveals how the troops were received, what their living conditions were like, how they would get along with their English allies and how they spent their leisure time.
  • Mackenzie King and the Conscription Crisis
    Mackenzie King and the Conscription Crisis
    Erna Buffie 1991 31 min
    From the beginning of the Second World War in 1939, Mackenzie King tried to avoid conscription. Most English Canadians thought young men should be sent to fight, while most French Canadians vehemently disagreed. This same division had nearly torn the country apart during the First World War. King had to make a decision in the final year of the war. This docudrama combines archival footage with excerpts from The King Chronicles, a dramatic series written and directed by Donald Brittain.

    Some scenes contain graphic language.
  • Minoru: Memory of Exile
    Minoru: Memory of Exile
    Michael Fukushima 1992 18 min
    The 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.
  • Money, Goods and Prices
    Money, Goods and Prices
    1945 14 min
    This animated portrayal of Canada's wartime economy uses simple symbols to present economic processes. The relationship of money, goods and prices is illustrated. There is a concise explanation of inflation and its implications, and of the efforts Canada is making to counteract inflationary trends with taxation, Victory Bonds and price ceilings. (Also released as Eyes Front No. 24.)
  • The Missus Beats Him to It
    The Missus Beats Him to It
    1943 1 min
    The film emphasizes the wartime need for remodelling old clothes, to avoid the purchase of new garments.
  • Mutual Aid
    Mutual Aid
    1944 5 min
    An animated short about the work of Canada's Mutual Aid Board and the necessity for this cooperation between the Allied countries.
  • Open Secrets
    Open Secrets
    José Torrealba 2003 52 min
    This provocative documentary uncovers a lost chapter in Canadian military history: how the Armed Forces dealt with homosexual behaviour among soldiers, during and after World War II. More than 60 years later, a group of five veterans, barely adults when they enlisted, break the silence to talk about how homosexual behaviour "was even more unmentionable than cancer." Yet amidst the brutality of war, instances of sexual awakening among soldiers and officers were occuring. Initially, the Army overlooked it, but as the war advanced, they began to crack down: military tribunals, threats of imprisonment, discharge and public exposure. After the war, officers accused of homosexuality were discharged. Back home in Canada, reputations and careers were ruined. For the young men who had served their country with valour, this final chapter was often too much to bear. Based on the book Courting Homosexuals in the Military by Paul Jackson.
  • Ottawa, Wartime Capital
    Ottawa, Wartime Capital
    1942 10 min
    This look at Ottawa shows it as the nerve-centre of Canada during World War II. Everyone, from Prime Minister Mackenzie King and his Cabinet down to the most junior civil servants, shares the responsibility of maintaining the country in the face of wartime requirements.
  • Providing Goods for You
    Providing Goods for You
    1944 4 min
    A short animated film that explains the necessity of curtailing the consumption of civilian goods in wartime.
  • Prices in Wartime
    Prices in Wartime
    1942 10 min
    The film explains the causes and effects of inflation during wartime. It shows the need for wage and price controls to stabilize the economy. The Mackenzie King government's Wartime Prices and Trade Board is shown keeping a close eye on the Canadian economy and implementing controls before inflation goes out of control.
  • The Road to Civvy Street
    The Road to Civvy Street
    Vincent Paquette 1945 19 min
    A look at the various programs and services available through the Canadian government to help World War II veterans re-establish themselves in civilian life.
  • Return to Dresden
    Return to Dresden
    Martin Duckworth 1986 27 min
    In 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.
  • Rosies of the North
    Rosies of the North
    Kelly Saxberg 1999 46 min
    They raised children, baked cakes... and built world-class fighter planes. Sixty years ago, 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.
  • Rationing
    Rationing
    1943 2 min
    An animated film about wartime rationing. In peacetime, goods are plentiful. In wartime, production is at an all-time high--but much of it is for war, and there are less goods for the ordinary civilian. People with more money and time get more goods, which is unfair for those with less cash and leisure. The only fair way to distribute goods is to ration by coupon. Then, whenever you shop you get your share.
  • Shameless Propaganda: Part 2 (Educational Version)
    Shameless Propaganda: Part 2 (Educational Version)
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    Robert Lower 2014 36 min
    Some have called the documentary Canada’s national art form. If it is, the foundations of that art were laid by the National Film Board of Canada in the first six years of its existence, 1939–45, under the inspired vision and watchful eye of John Grierson, its first Commissioner. Released in the year of the NFB’s 75th birthday, Shameless Propaganda is filmmaker Robert Lower’s take on the greatest and most compelling propaganda effort in our history. Lower has watched the films produced by the NFB up until 1945—all 500 of them—and distilled the essence of their message to Canadians. Using only these films and still photos from that era, Lower recreates the picture of Canada they gave us and looks in it for the Canada we know today. What he finds is by turns enlightening, entertaining, and unexpectedly disturbing. Part 2 of a 2 episode Educational series.
  • Shameless Propaganda
    Shameless Propaganda
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    Robert Lower 2014 1 h 11 min
    This feature documentary examines its own genre, which has often been called Canada's national art form. Released in the year of the NFB's 75th birthday, Shameless Propaganda is filmmaker Robert Lower's take on the boldest and most compelling propaganda effort in our history (1939-1945), in which founding NFB Commissioner John Grierson saw the documentary as a "hammer to shape society". All 500 of the films produced by the NFB until 1945 are distilled here for the essence of their message to Canadians. Using only these films and still photos from that era, Lower recreates the picture of Canada they gave us and looks in it for the Canada we know today. What he finds is by turns enlightening, entertaining, and unexpectedly disturbing.
  • Savage Christmas: Hong Kong 1941
    Savage Christmas: Hong Kong 1941
    Brian McKenna 1991 1 h 44 min
    In 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.
  • Shameless Propaganda: Part 1 (Educational Version)
    Shameless Propaganda: Part 1 (Educational Version)
    We're sorry, this content is not available in your location.
    Robert Lower 2014 36 min
    Some have called the documentary Canada’s national art form. If it is, the foundations of that art were laid by the National Film Board of Canada in the first six years of its existence, 1939–45, under the inspired vision and watchful eye of John Grierson, its first Commissioner. Released in the year of the NFB’s 75th birthday, Shameless Propaganda is filmmaker Robert Lower’s take on the greatest and most compelling propaganda effort in our history. Lower has watched the films produced by the NFB up until 1945—all 500 of them—and distilled the essence of their message to Canadians. Using only these films and still photos from that era, Lower recreates the picture of Canada they gave us and looks in it for the Canada we know today. What he finds is by turns enlightening, entertaining, and unexpectedly disturbing. Part 1 of a 2 episode Educational series.
  • Traitor or Patriot
    Traitor or Patriot
    Jacques Godbout 2000 1 h 22 min
    This feature documentary is a portrait of Adélard Godbout, the largely forgotten man who was Premier of Quebec from 1939 to 1944. During his office, Godbout helped lay the groundwork for the Quiet Revolution of the 1950s and 1960s: instituting compulsory education, giving women the vote, creating Hydro-Québec and trying to free the province from domination by the clergy. Yet, during the conscription crisis, he favoured sending volunteers to fight Hitler: a sin for which many would never forgive him. Filmmaker Jacques Godbout takes a fresh look at his great-uncle's legacy.
  • This Is Our Canada
    This Is Our Canada
    Stanley Jackson 1945 20 min
    A brief look at the history of Canada followed by a demonstration of the growth and strengths which Canada developed under the pressure of World War II. Included are glimpses of the resources, industries, people and lifestyles.
  • Train Busters
    Train Busters
    Sydney Newman 1944 13 min
    This short film depicts the strength and resources of the Royal Canadian Air Force, with its 32 overseas squadrons. It includes footage that explains the Allied air strategy of hitting the German army's nerve centres and features Canadian airplanes destroying a German munitions train.
  • To the Ladies
    To the Ladies
    1946 10 min
    From the Canada Carries On series, this is a tribute to the women of Canada for their part in the World War II effort. The Canadian Women's Army Corps and homemakers alike were called upon to do their part. From careful budgeting in the home to services rendered overseas, women's work was integral to the well-being of all.
  • Tomorrow's World
    Tomorrow's World
    1943 19 min
    From the Canada Carries On series, this documentary emphasizes the importance of conservation and rationing, and the increased industrial production, during World War II. It suggests that "tomorrow's world" will be more prosperous and better planned because of the war efforts.
  • Twilight of an Era (1934-1939)
    Twilight of an Era (1934-1939)
    1960 29 min
    This documentary examines some of the important events in Canada during the Depression years: the Moose River mine disaster, the great drought on the prairies and the introduction of a transatlantic air service between Canada and Europe. The film also looks at the major world events that influenced Canada: the abdication of the king of England; civil war in Spain; Hitler's rise to power and Canada's declaration of war on Germany. Part of the Between Two Wars series.
  • Unwanted Soldiers
    Unwanted Soldiers
    Jari Osborne 1999 48 min
    This 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.
  • Welcome Soldier
    Welcome Soldier
    1944 15 min
    This archival film outlines the various government plans created to help World War II Canadian veterans return to civilian life. Cash bonuses, paid educational leave, assured work, free medical services and many other benefits were extended to the veterans to help them reintegrate into civilian life. Produced by the NFB for the Canadian Department of Pensions and National Health.
  • Women Are Warriors
    Women Are Warriors
    Jane Marsh 1942 14 min
    This short film from WWII focuses on the increasingly important roles women occupy on the various war fronts. In England, their more active jobs include ferrying planes from factory to airfield and operating anti-aircraft guns. In Russia, they are fighting on the front lines as well as acting as parachute nurses, army doctors and technicians. In Canada women have joined active service auxiliaries, and thousands labour day and night in factories turning out the tools of war. From the Canada Carries On series.
  • What, No Beef?
    What, No Beef?
    1943 1 min
    Plugger is annoyed at seeing empty butcher's shelves. Beef is needed, explains Mrs. Plugger, to feed the soldiers overseas. Plugger cheerfully buys a chicken.