NFB Collection
Front Lines
200833 min 51 secFilm: Documentary
Direction: Claude Guilmain
Production: Anne-Marie RocherJacques Turgeon
Script: Claude Guilmain
Produced by the National Film Board of Canada with the participation of the Department of National Defence; the directors of Canada Remembers, Veterans Affairs Canada and the Canadian War Museum.
A tribute to the combatants in the First World War, this film traces the conflict through the war diary and private letters of five Canadian soldiers and a nurse. Hearing them, the listener detects between the lines an unspoken horror censored by war and propriety.
The film mingles war footage, historical photos and readings of excerpts from the diary and letters. The directorial talent of Claude Guilmain breathes life into these 90-year-old documents and accompanying archival images so that we experience the human face and heart of the conflict.
For the educational sector, five documentary vignettes have been drawn from the film: Nurses at the Front, The Officer's Role, The Life of the Soldier, Faith and Hope and The Trenches, each with further information on its particular subject.
Availability
Other versions
Subject categories
- War, Conflict and Peace > EuropeMemoirs and MemorialsWorld War I
- Foreign Countries > France
- History - Canada - 1867-1919 > World War I
- English Language Arts > CanLit
- Media Education > Journalism/News
- History > World War I
Credits
- director
- Claude Guilmain
- writer
- Claude Guilmain
- researcher
- Claude Guilmain
- script translator
- Claude Guilmain
- actor
- Paul Gross
- Joe Dinicol
- Jean Yoon
- Philip Graeme
- Dylan Roberts
- Colm Feore
- Steve Baker
- Paul Fauteux
- Jordon Pettle
- additional voice
- Petra Valier
- Manfred Becker
- Doïna Harap
- Alex Strijevsky
- research advisor
- Michel Litalien
- script consultant
- Monique Proulx
- visual advisor
- Luc Bourdon
- director of photography
- François Dagenais
- production manager
- Lara Popic
- editing
- Peter Vinet
- sound editing
- Daniel Toussaint
- sound design
- Daniel Toussaint
- sound editing - assistance
- Luc Raymond
- foley
- Stéphane Cadotte
- original music
- Claude Naubert
- musician
- Claude Naubert
- Renée-Paule Gauthier
- Andréa Armijo-Fortin
- David Thies-Thompson
- Carole Sirois
- online editing
- Françoise Laprise
- re-recording
- Serge Boivin
- titles
- Gaspard Gaudreau
- Philippe Raymond
- marketing manager
- Julie Arseneault
- marketing assistant
- Karine Sévigny
- administrator
- Alexandrine Torres de Figueiredo
- administrative assistant
- Vanessa Emam
- technical coordinator
- Micheline Faubert
- producer
- Anne-Marie Rocher
- executive producer
- Jacques Turgeon
- partnerships
- Liliane Tremblay