Join COBWFA for a special film screening at the Royal Canadian Military Institute

The Central Ontario Branch Western Front Association will present Ways We Remember War: A Documentary Film; The Second Battle of Ypres and Canada’s Memory, on Wednesday 23 April at the Royal Canadian Military Institute. This 70-minute documentary film was written, directed and produced by Geoffrey Bird, professor at Royal Roads University in Victoria, BC, who will be the guest speaker for this special event.

The presentation will also mark the110th Anniversary of one of Canada’s first moments of battle in the First World War on 22 April 1915, in a small, wooded area called Kitcheners’ Wood. In response to the first use of chlorine gas in warfare, the attack marked the beginning of what became known as the Second Battle of Ypres.

Geoffrey Bird

Without film or photographs, Canada’s memory of the battle is shaped by art, memorials and pilgrimage to the battlefield itself. Working with The Calgary Highlanders, The Canadian Scottish Regiment, the Canadian War Museum, residents of Flanders, leading historians and landscape artists, this film explores the power of place and the significance of Flanders in shaping Canadian war remembrance.

Geoffrey Bird is a professor in the School of Communication and Culture at Royal Roads University. He is also the creator and project lead of the War Heritage Research Initiative. He has written, directed and produced 35 short and long documentary films, focusing on sites of memory linked to the world wars and the guardians of remembrance who keep the stories alive. Geoff served as a naval reserve officer and a heritage interpreter at the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France, before working in post-secondary education and community development across Canada and overseas. His PhD in anthropology involved fieldwork in Normandy to study the power of place for visitors to the D-Day beaches of June 1944, its battlefields and cemeteries.

Guests will also be invited to take a tour of the Institute, which was started in 1890.

Agenda for the Evening

18:00 – Drinks at the Long Bar
18:15 – Sandwiches, Sliders and Beverages in the Otter Room
19:00 – Film Presentation and Screening in the Otter Room

Tickets are $39.00 and include soft drink or juice. Tickets are available now on Eventbrite and guests are welcome. We have also invited members of RCMI to join us for the evening.

The Royal Canadian Military Institute is located at 426 University Ave. in downtown Toronto. For transit users, take the subway to St. Patrick Station. Green P parking is available on University Avenue.