John McCrae's War: In Flanders Fields

John McCrae's War: In Flanders Fields

| 46 min
Free
streaming

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This 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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John McCrae's War: In Flanders Fields, Robert Duncan, provided by the National Film Board of Canada

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Credits
  • director
    Robert Duncan
  • script
    Robert Duncan
  • producer
    Jonathan Desbarats
    Barbara Shearer
    Selwyn Jacob
  • executive producer
    Robert Duncan
    Graydon McCrea
  • camera
    Keith Taylor
    Peter Walker
    Bill Casey
    Fred MacDonald
  • sound
    Bob McKenzie
    Ao Loo
    François Proulx
  • editing
    Janice Brown
  • sound editing
    Marc Benoit
  • voice
    Paul Nash
    Rae Hull
  • narrator
    Jay Brazeau
  • music
    John Sereda

  • lguenthe

    Thank you. My maternal grandfather, Alexander Herbert Fidler, served and survived the war...I do not know the details, but is remembered here https://www.metismuseum.ca/metisveteransmonument/column.php?v=BSCHGR. Stunning, poignant film about an important moment in Canadian history...Lest We Forget.

    lguenthe, 2 Nov 2021
  • mikecan001

    My Grandfather, Gerry Brimble survived The Second Battle of Ypres. At age 17 he was gassed and sent home to Kenora, Ontario. Gerry later died of lung cancer. He knew me although I do not remember him as a boy. I remember and Honor him. My mother told me of him urinating on his underwear and breathing through it to neutralize the chlorine gas. This is all I know.

    mikecan001, 12 Aug 2014

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