Seriously Moving Images

Sirens wail to signal an air raid drill in Vancouver.

View BANSHEES OVER CANADA (NFB, 1945)

The most interesting part of this wartime NFB documentary starts at 11:52 in the above clip, and deals with air-raid and civil defence preparations in Canada, focusing on the example of Vancouver.  The Vancouver segment (about 6 minutes long) includes footage of blackout precautions, the local ARP headquarters, the role of air raid wardens, emergency planning, first aid classes, warning sirens, air raid and gas drills, fire-fighting exercises, and RCAF defence aircraft.

Here’s the NFB’s on-line catalogue description of Banshees: “This newsreel documentary made during WWII was used to illustrate Britain’s preparations for an air attack. Scenes depict destruction wrought by enemy planes, the efficiency of retaliation by the Royal Air Force and the precautions taken in Canada against possible air attack.”

The B.C. footage was filmed by Vancouver Motion Pictures, a locally-owned production company that shot or produced a number of NFB titles during the 1940s. The Vancouver crew included director Ed Taylor and cinematographer Wally Hamilton, who later owned Trans-Canada Films, Vancouver’s first film lab and service facility.

Vancouver fire-fighting drill scene from “Banshees Over Canada”.