Women Are Warriors

Réalisé par Jane Marsh

Canada, 1942 (documentaire, 14 minutes, noir et blanc, anglais)

Autre titre : « Les femmes dans la mêlée »

Image : © Office national du film du Canada

Vidéo (Office national du film du Canada)
Vidéo (Office national du film du Canada) [anglais]

Description du film :
« La main-d'oeuvre masculine se faisant rare, les femmes prennent de plus en plus part à la guerre. En Angleterre, elles pilotent des avions, pendant qu'en Russie, elles combattent à côté des hommes. Au Canada, elles travaillent dans les usines de munitions et jouent un rôle actif dans les centres d'entraînement, les aérodromes et les camps militaires. »
-- Office national du film du Canada (source)

Générique (partiel) :
Scénario :	Jane Marsh
Produit par :	Raymond Spottiswoode, Stanley Hawes
Montage images :	Jane Marsh
Société de production :	National Film Board of Canada / Office national du film du Canada

(sources)

Citation sur Women Are Warriors

« Certains titres de films de ces réalisatrices jugés trop revendicateurs ou avant-gardistes ont été changés pour des titres qui posaient moins de problèmes. C'est le cas du film de Jane Marsh: Work for Women dont on a modifié le titre pour Women are Warriors. Le premier titre proposait trop clairement aux femmes de travailler, c'est-à-dire de prendre des emplois en fonction de leurs talents et de leurs capacités, alors que le second laissait entendre qu'avec la fin de la guerre les femmes retourneraient à la maison et que tout rentrerait dans l'ordre. »
-- Jocelyne Denault (source)

Citations sur Women Are Warriors [en anglais]

« John Grierson could match the tyranny of any Hollywood mogul. Jane Marsh's final cut of Women Are Warriors, for example, hardly resembles the ambition of her original treatment on women's contemporary situation. [...] After a final disagreement with Grierson, who refused to let a woman head his 'Canada Carries On' series, Marsh resigned from the NFB in 1944. »
-- Kay Armatage, Kass Banning, Brenda Longfellow, Janine Marchessault (source)

« The film [Women Are Warriors] ended with a superb montage moving from shots of women in factories to a plane in action, to factory, to plane to factory and plane to demonstrate how important women's roles were to the war effort. »
-- Gary Evans (source)

« Today Canada, through selective service, urgently seeks solutions for her manpower needs. Women Are Warriors shows how far women in the United Nations have already gone in sharing with men the full risks and responsibilities of war. »
-- Globe and Mail (source)

« Unlike Women at War and Wings on Her Shoulders, Women Are Warriors makes it clear that these women were not leisurely idlers before the war—they were domestic workers, secretaries, doing whatever work was available for women. But just as the implications of Jane Marsh's original title, Work for Women, were suppressed in favour of Women Are Warriors, so the implications of the film's structure and commentary are suppressed by the use of a male narrator—the same patriotic, reassuring voice heard in so many films showing men at war. »
-- Barbara Halpern Martineau (source)

« [Women Are Warriors] reviews the many new and impressive civilian jobs performed by females in various Allied countries. At a British airplane factory, for example, the male narrator describes women 'adapt[ing] themselves easily' to tasks that include 'working on electrical circuits, soldering iron ... working with drills and lathes [and] rivetting sheet metal.' »
-- Jeffrey A. Keshen (source)

« The difference between the original script prepared by Marsh and the final version of the film [Women Are Warriors] was quite vast. Comparing the two versions illustrates that some NFB filmmakers were insistent on pushing the envelope even further with their class-based analysis, and that by the end they would settle for solutions that accepted the limitations associated with working within a government agency. »
-- Malek Khouri (source)

« [Women Are Warriors] represents an excellent example of the creative application of the compilation model in NFB films. The film brings together huge pre-edited chunks of British and Soviet footage with practically no NFB-produced material. Marsh's editing approach and her ability to incorporate a multitude of distinct newsreel footage was instinctual with a powerful artistic and political force. »
-- Malek Khouri (source)

Bibliographie sur Women Are Warriors

Brèves parties de livres

KHOURI, Malek. Filming Politics: Communism and the Portrayal of the Working Class at the National Film Board of Canada, 1939-46, Calgary, University of Calgary Press, 2007. [en anglais] (pp. 138-139)

Articles de journaux, de revues grand public ou de sites d'information en ligne

GLOBE AND MAIL. « Women at war shown in movie: August issue of series depicts varied activities », critique de Women Are Warriors, Globe and Mail, 26 août 1942. [en anglais]

Brèves parties de thèses

NASH, Mary Teresa. Images of women in National Film Board of Canada Films During World War II and the Post-War Years (1939-1949), 1983. Thèse de doctorat, McGill University. (pp. 502-519) [en anglais]

Sites Web sur Women Are Warriors

NATIONAL FILM BOARD OF CANADA. « NFB -- Women Are Warriors », National Film Board of Canada, http://www3.nfb.ca/collection/films/fiche/?id=15541. [en anglais]
OFFICE NATIONAL DU FILM DU CANADA. « ONF -- Les Femmes dans la mêlée », Office national du film du Canada, http://www3.onf.ca/collection/films/fiche/index.php?id=3589.