A Return to Memory

“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.