Toronto premiere of documentary film Ways We Remember War: The Second Battle of Ypres and Canada’s Memory

How does visual art shape—or unsettle—national memory when photographs and film are absent? To what extent is cultural memory shaped by memorialization and the landscape itself?

These questions are at the heart of Ways We Remember War: The Second Battle of Ypres and Canada’s Memory, premiering in Toronto. This 70-minute documentary invites viewers to explore the legacy of Canada’s first major battle in the First World War through visual art, memorials, and poetry.

Filmed across British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, and Ypres, Belgium, the documentary uses arts-based inquiry to examine how war is remembered and interpreted. Contemporary landscape artists engage with and reimagine these sites, following in the footsteps of Mary Riter Hamilton, who painted the devastated fields of Flanders between 1919 and 1921. The film also highlights works by Richard Jack, William Roberts, and sculptor Frederick Clemesha, who memorialized the Second Battle of Ypres in its aftermath.

Incorporating drone footage, archival materials, and interviews—with artists, local residents, veterans from the Canadian Scottish Regiment and The Calgary Highlanders, and scholars including Dr. Stacey Barker, Dr. Tim Cook, Dr. Jonathan Vance, Dr. Jay Winter, and Dr. Irene Gammel (Director, Modern Literature and Culture Research Centre, TMU)—the documentary reflects on the power of place and battlefield pilgrimage in shaping memory and imagining reconciliation.

Directed, written, and produced by Dr. Geoffrey Bird (Professor, Royal Roads University), Ways We Remember War explores memory, art, and landscape as living, shifting forms of remembrance.

This event is presented by the Embassy of Belgium in Canada as part of “Belgian Days in Toronto,” promoting Belgian Canadian friendship and cultural exchange. Supported by Veterans Affairs Canada, Royal Roads University, and the Modern Literature and Culture Research Centre, TMU.

A light lunch will be served at 12:00 PM. Free admission and free lunch.