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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. The sketches transform into colourized archive footage and take us back in time to revisit the daily lives of the Canadian Corps soldiers. This project marks the first time the NFB has colourized its own archives for a film project.
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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. The sketches transform into colourized archive footage and take us back in time to revisit the daily lives of the Canadian Corps soldiers.


This project marks the first time the NFB has colourized its own archives for a film project.

War, Conflict and Peace All subjects
Short Docs All channels
  • writer
    Denis McCready
  • director
    Denis McCready
  • producer
    Denis McCready
  • cast
    Chala Hunter
    Raphael Cohen-Demers
    Marianne Goyette
  • directing consultant
    Pierre Marier
  • animation
    Claude Cloutier
  • editing
    Etienne Gagnon
  • sound design
    Sylvain Bellemare
  • music
    Mathieu G. Dandurand
  • colourization of archival material
    François Montpellier
  • infographics (animations)
    Keyu Chen
  • foley
    Simon Meilleur
  • NFB archives
    Ragnhild Milewski
    Lea Nakonechny
    Yvon Larocque
    Josée Riopel
  • NFB collection curator
    Albert Ohayon
  • film digitization technician
    Aldo La Ricca
    William Holley
  • colour timing
    Sylvie Marie Fortier
  • restoration
    Sylvie Marie Fortier
  • technical support - editing
    Jean Coulombe
  • adaptation
    Claude Dionne
  • subtitling
    Claude Dionne
  • copy editing
    George Kaltsounakis
  • head, coordination and project support
    Pierre Ferlatte
  • online editing
    Denis Pilon
  • infographics
    Mélanie Bouchard
  • foley recording
    Geoffrey Mitchell
  • narration recording
    Geoffrey Mitchell
  • mixing
    Jean Paul Vialard
  • administrator
    Isabelle Limoges
  • production coordinator
    Gabrielle Dupont
    Marcia Seebaran
  • technical coordinator
    Daniel Lord
    Luc Binette
  • marketing manager
    Charles Pease
  • legal services
    Peter Kallianiotis
    Hugo Barnabé
  • executive producer
    Julie Huguet

Education

Ages 12 to 18

Notes

Use to personalize the study of World War I. Do you have family members who fought in the First World War, Second World War or Korean War? Explore the story of your relative or another Canadian soldier using the Library and Archives Canada, and through family stories or newspaper stories. Study the use of personal accounts and archival footage to tell the story of this soldier. Ask students about their experience watching the archives in colour. How does it differ from watching archives in black and white?

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