Beyond the Battlefield: Remembrance Day Film Festival & Outreach Exhibit

Oct 13

In honour of Remembrance Day, we're hosting a mini-film festival on Saturday, November 9th to explore narratives that sometimes go unnoticed.

We'll be showing five films from the National Film Board of Canada that will highlight some of the incredible contributions of women in both world wars, Indigenous soldiers in WWII, Italian-Canadian internment experiences duing WWII, and the story of a pair of Mennonite brothers during WWII who made the tough decision to either enlist or be conscientious objectors.

Drop by for just one film, or stay to see them all!

Discover how these diverse experiences shape our understanding of sacrifice and courage. From personal journeys to community tributes, we’ll explore the rich tapestry of history that extends beyond the battlefield.

📅 Saturday, November 9, 2024

🕚 12 pm - 5 pm

📍 Rossland Museum & Discovery Centre

🎟️ Entry by Donation

Film Schedule:

12 pm: And We Knew How to Dance: Women in World War One

1 pm: Forgotten Warriors

2 pm: Barbed Wire and Mandolins

3 pm: Rosies of the North

4 pm: The Pacifist Who Went to War

Film Details:

And We Knew How to Dance: Women in World War One

12 pm | 1993 | 55 min

This feature documentary profiles twelve Canadian women who entered the male-dominated world of munitions factories, farm labour, and more during World War I. In the 1990s, these women, aged 86 to 101, recall their wartime work experiences and the ways in which their commitment and determination helped lead the way to postwar social changes for women.

Forgotten Warriors

1 pm | 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.

Barbed Wire and Mandolins

2 pm | 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.

Rosies of the North

3 pm | 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.

The Pacifist Who Went to War

4 pm | 2002 | 51 min

This documentary is the story of two Mennonite brothers from Manitoba who were forced to make a decision in 1939, as Canada joined World War II. In the face of 400 years of pacifist tradition, should they now go to war? Ted became a conscientious objector while his brother went into military service. Fifty years later, the town of Winkler dedicates its first war memorial and John begins to share his war experiences with Ted.