Jane Marsh

This short documentary illustrates rural French Canadian life in the early 1940s. The film follows Alexis Tremblay and his family through the busy autumn days as they bring in the harvest and help with bread baking and soap making. Winter sees the children revelling in outdoor sports while the women are busy with their weaving, and, with the coming of spring young and old alike repair to the fields once more to plough the earth in preparation for another season of varied crops. One of the first NFB films to be produced, directed, written and shot by women.

As WWII continues, more and more men are called upon to take to the skies in Allied bombers for missions over Germany. As such, many ground crew in Allied air units are being filled by women. One such unit is the 9,000 strong Women's Division of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). Getting recruits on average of several hundred per month, the Division is comprised of women from all backgrounds. The recruits ask for no special favors and know that the work they will be doing is hard and important all for the war effort. The women endure much the same as their male counterparts. And much as the men do, their work ranges from the technical engineering functions in support of the bombers themselves, but also in all aspects of the military. Many prepare for their post-war life where their work will act in the support of the civilian air services

Highlights the increasingly important roles women occupy on the various fronts of WW II. In England, their more active jobs include ferrying planes from factory to airfield and operating anti-aircraft guns. In Russia, they are fighting on the front lines as well as acting as parachute nurses, army doctors and technicians. In Canada women have joined active service auxiliaries, and thousands labour day and night in factories turning out the tools of war. From the Canada Carries On series.

This film from the Second World War is a report on how Canadian women were trained to handle many kinds of work in the Canadian Women's Army Corps, the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Women's Royal Canadian Naval Service. Basic training, everyday life in the forces and the contribution of women to Canada's fighting strength are illustrated.