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Coming October 18
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A Return to Memory

2024 1 h 58 min
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When Canada entered World War II, the National Film Board suddenly had an urgent new mission—and hundreds of women stepped forward, helping to create Canadian cinema as we now know it.

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A Return to Memory

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“We learned to work with chaos.”

The intrepid women who helped create Canadian cinema come to vibrant life in A Return to Memory, a documentary masterwork illuminating their vital but little-known role in establishing Canada’s National Film Board.

Juxtaposing a dazzling array of archival material with dynamic animation by NFB infographics artist Mélanie Bouchard, director Donald McWilliams evokes the heady wartime years, when women played a key part in transforming the NFB into a major international studio.

With men engaged elsewhere in the war effort, hundreds of women pursued careers at the newly formed public producer—and pioneering figures like Evelyn Spice Cherry, Red Burns and Jane Marsh Beveridge made movie history, creating work that spoke to the world with a distinctive Canadian voice.
  • writer
    Donald McWilliams
  • director
    Donald McWilliams
  • editor
    Donald McWilliams
  • original idea
    Michelle van Beusekom
  • script consultant
    Michelle van Beusekom
  • editing consultant
    Michelle van Beusekom
  • graphic design
    Mélanie Bouchard
  • graphic animations
    Mélanie Bouchard
  • research
    Alison Burns
    Donald McWilliams
  • photographic research
    Josée Laliberté
  • music
    Melissa Hui
  • sound design
    Sacha Ratcliffe
  • additional music
    Phyllis Gummer
  • narration
    Clare Coulter
    Donald McWilliams
  • voice recording
    Geoffrey Mitchell
    Luc Léger
    Bernard Belley
  • music recording
    Geoffrey Mitchell
    Luc Léger
    Bernard Belley
  • re-recording
    Jean-Paul Vialard
  • online editor
    Serge Verreault
  • group discussion leader
    Susan Schouten
  • camera
    Nesya Shapiro
  • sound recording
    Ingrid Cusiel
  • technical coordinator
    Daniel Lord
  • digital editing technician
    Marie-Josée Gourde
    Albert Kurian
    Pierre Dupont
    Isabelle Painchaud
    Patrick Trahan
  • production
    Annette Clarke
    Ariel Nasr
    Katherine Baulu
  • musician
    Krystina Marcoux
    Andrew King
    Jeffrey Stonehouse
    David Potvin
    Stéphanie Bozzini
    Isabelle Bozzini
    Clemens Merkel
    Alissa Cheung
  • negative cutter
    Eva Cvijanovic
    Fred Casia
  • additional research
    Nancy Marcotte
    Katherine Kasirer
    Claire Gray
    Louise Moyes
    Asia Mason
  • archival clearances
    Elizabeth Klinck
    Alison Burns
    Nancy Marcotte
  • music rights clearance
    John Ciccone
  • director of photography - development
    Michael Yaroshevsky
  • head, Technical resources
    Sylvain Desbiens
  • coordinator technical resources
    Isabelle Painchaud
    Antonia Gueorguieva
    Martin Forget
  • NFB Conservation and Digitization
    Marie-France Rousseau
  • NFB Institutional Archives
    André D'Ulisse
  • archival sound digitization
    Pierre St-Germain
  • colourist
    Sylvie Marie Fortier
  • timer
    Sylvie Marie Fortier
  • transcription
    Lori Heath
  • additional technical coordination
    Christopher MacIntosh
    Luc Binette
  • production supervisor
    Roz Power
  • senior production coordinator
    Cheryl Murgatroyd
  • production coordinator
    Yanis Ait Mohamed
    Christine Williams
  • associate producer
    Kelly Davis
  • studio administrator
    Leslie Anne Poyntz
  • marketing manager
    Jamie Hammond
  • marketing coordinator
    Jolène Lessard
    Harmonie Hemming
  • publicist
    Osas Eweka-Smith
  • legal counsel
    Dominique Aubry
  • executive producer
    Annette Clarke
    John Christou
    Rohan Fernando
    Nathalie Cloutier