Adam Prudhomme
Editor
As Remembrance Day nears, Trinity United’s latest installment of their Trinity Presents series will feature two screenings of films that highlight contributions made to the war effort by women.
This two-part event will include screenings of local filmmaker Dale Morrisey’s Heroines in the Storm miniseries, featuring Episodes 4 and 1 of the four-part documentary, starting with The War At Home on Oct. 26 followed by The Secret War on Nov. 9, both starting at 2 p.m.
Morrisey based his documentary off the work of local author Sherry Pringle’s book Extraordinary Women, Extraordinary Times. Both filmmaker and author will be on hand for a Q&A session following each screening.
Though broken down into a four part miniseries, each individual film is written in a way that allows it to stand-alone. Morrisey says The War At Home ranks as his favourite of the series.
“It deals with the work that women do on the home front during WWII,” said Morrisey. “The Gibbard’s Girls feature in Episode 4 and we talk about the role that Gibbard’s played during WWII building ammunition cases and the ship’s wheels for the warships and all the other types of things they did and how the women stepped up to fill labour shortages. Women, up until then because of the depression, had seen a decline in their ability to be in the work force, especially married women. It was sort of frowned upon during the Great Depression so all of a sudden the depression is coming to an end, and it’s hastened coming to an end by WWII, and men are going off and women are needed. At not quite the same pay rate as men mind you, but they’re needed just the same.”
The episode also explores war brides, which was particularly of interest to Morrisey as his grandfather found his bride while serving overseas.
With Remembrance Day ceremonies approaching, the films serve as the perfect reminder that sacrifices were being made on the home front as well.
“Those contributions from those women, without them, the war effort crumbles,” said Morrissey. “More light shines on it now than in the past, but so much of the time we think of the men overseas and that’s great. But without the women picking up the slack at home, the war effort crumbles. There’s no food, then you can’t march. When there’s no ammunitions, you can’t march.”
The second screening in the series, which will take place Nov. 6, is actually Episode 1 in the miniseries, looks at women who risked their lives to contribute to the war effort.
“It deals with the darker sides of the WWII, which is espionage,” said Morrisey. “Women who are secret agents, women who were part of the SOE and parachuted into occupied France to help with what Churchill said to ‘set Europe ablaze’ in an effort to push back against Hitler and soften things up so the Allies could invade and obviously gather intelligence that was needed for the Allies to invade.”
“It was a dangerous job,” added Morrisey. “The life expectancy of those women was not great.”
The film was a passion project for both Morrisey and Pringle, who wanted to preserve these firsthand accounts of the war for future generations. As more time passes between the end of the war, there are fewer people alive who experienced it with their own eyes.
“It’s destined to PBS and that’s great, but I think it’s real impact is going to be these types of events and screenings and then putting it in classrooms for the Grade 10 History curriculum and being able to interact with people that way and make sure that we can get these stories out,” said Morrisey.
With the film headed to PBS Morrisey says there are sponsorship and marketing opportunities available for the film, which can be discussed by contacting wjpmedia@gmail.com.
Admission to the Trinity Presents screening is $5 per person, $2 for students. Trinity is located at 25 Bridge Street E in Napanee.