New audio documentary tracks exceptional journey of a French-Canadian wartime nurse
This story is translated from Radio-Canada's French-language coverage of selected works from the Canada Council for the Arts Digital Originals grant. À lire en français sur le site de Radio-Canada.
Sophie Bissonnette never stopped thinking about Eva Cayer. Born in a little Quebec village in 1907, Eva Cayer challenged societal expectations of women.
"She had a great desire to excel, but none of the possible avenues were satisfactory. I think the Canadian army, for her, was an opportunity to go on an adventure by devoting herself to extremely dangerous work," recounts Sophie Bissonnette, who has directed documentary films for 40 years.
Dozens of French-Canadian women joined the front lines during World War II, and their accounts are scattered. After Sophie Bissonnette found the 16-mm film reel of the interview, a researcher from Laval University, Johanne Daigle, helped her understand that it was a rare story.
The Cinémathèque Québécoise agreed to digitize the 30-year-old interview, but the pandemic interrupted the conservation efforts.
"I had the sound files from the shoot, but not the footage. And I didn't know yet how long it might take, the pandemic being so unpredictable! So, I decided to make an audio documentary, which I had never done before I got the Connexion Creation grant," recounts Sophie Bissonnette.
After about six weeks spent patching up and improving the sound clips at home, the documentary Eva Cayer: une infirmière au front was born.
In 24 minutes, the filmmaker recounts the young girl's departure for Minneapolis, where she learned English as well as earning a degree in microbiology and eventually opening a laboratory situated in a hospital. Like so many other nurses and veterans of the time, Eva Cayer returned marked by the war, struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder and serious health problems.
"She felt she was abandoned, forgotten, that there was little recognition of her accomplishments and of all those who sacrificed themselves to the war effort. She is still largely unknown; the only other mention I found of her story was in the book De la poêle à frire à la ligne de feu by Raymonde Lamothe and Geneviève Auger. Yet, she had an extraordinary life," said Bissonnette.
The filmmaker wishes to continue exploring the audio format. She describes herself as passionate about women's voices already and has many projects in mind, in particular one that tells the stories of immigrant women, through co-creations.
"The pandemic imposed a lot of constraints on me, but in art, constraints can sometimes be an opportunity to do things differently. I opened a door that I won't close again," said Bissonnette.
This story is part of Digital Originals, an initiative of the Canada Council for the Arts. Artists were offered a $5,000 micro-grant to either adapt their existing work or create new work for the digital world during the COVID-19 pandemic. CBC Arts has partnered with Canada Council to feature a selection of these projects. This story is translated from Radio-Canada's French-language Digital Originals coverage. You can see more of these projects here.
