''War Babies'' (french: War Babies, nés de la haine) is a Canadian documentary film, directed by
Raymonde Provencher and released in 2002.
[Manon Dumais]
"War Babies / Raymonde Provencher : Mère courage"
''Voir
''Voir'' was a francophone alternative weekly newspaper in Montreal, Quebec, published by Communications Voir. ''Voir'' was founded by Pierre Paquet in November 1986. The first issue of the newspaper was published on 27 November 1986. Later on t ...
'', December 5, 2002. Centred on the prevalence of
rape as a tool of
war, the film focuses in large part on Ryan, an adopted Canadian man who is travelling back to his birthplace in
Bangladesh to learn more about his history as the product of a
Pakistani soldier raping a Bangladeshi woman during the
Bangladesh Liberation War
The Bangladesh Liberation War ( bn, মুক্তিযুদ্ধ, , also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence, or simply the Liberation War in Bangladesh) was a revolution and War, armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Benga ...
.
The film also highlights the stories of Savera, a mother of seven children who were all murdered during the
Rwandan genocide, who was then raped repeatedly when she tried to find safety; Nusreta, a Bosnian woman who was raped during the
Yugoslav Wars in the 1990s; Mrs. Chung, a Korean woman who became pregnant when the Japanese army forced her into serving as a
comfort woman
Comfort women or comfort girls were women and girls forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army in occupied countries and territories before and during World War II. The term "comfort women" is a translation of the Japanese '' ian ...
during
World War II. She had a son, who recently discovered his father's true Japanese identity; and Hailing, a young woman who was the product of her mother being raped by
guerrillas during the
Nicaraguan Revolution.
The film premiered in November 2002 at the
Montreal International Documentary Festival, and had a brief theatrical run in
Montreal in December,
[ before being broadcast by Télé-Québec in February 2003 as an episode of the documentary series ''L'Œil ouvert''.
]
Awards
It was subsequently screened at the 2003 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival
The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is the largest documentary festival in North America. The event takes place annually in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The 27th edition of the festival took place online throughout May and June ...
, where it was named the winner of the Hot Docs Audience Award.
It won four Gémeaux Awards in 2003, for Best Documentary, Best Research, Best Editing and Best Sound.
Legacy
The film was slated to be screened in a retrospective of Provencher's films at Hot Docs in 2020. When the event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the retrospective was postponed instead of taking place as part of the online program, and instead was staged at the 2022 festival.[Judy Wolfe]
"Raymonde Provencher Tells Stories that Need to Be Told"
''Point of View
Point of view or Points of View may refer to:
Concept and technique
* Point of view (philosophy), an attitude how one sees or thinks of something
* Point of view (literature) or narrative mode, the perspective of the narrative voice; the pronou ...
'', April 21, 2022.
References
{{reflist
2002 films
2002 documentary films
Canadian documentary films
2000s English-language films
2000s Canadian films
Documentary films about war crimes
Quebec films
Documentary films about rape
Films scored by Robert Marcel Lepage