Mary Riter Hamilton
“I cannot talk. I can only paint.” Mary Riter Hamilton painted the battlefields after the First World War as a testament to its devastating cost. She would suffer mental and physical illnesses as a result of documenting the experiences of Canadian soldiers.
Born in 1867 in Teeswater, Ontario, Mary Riter Hamilton was a rising artist when the First World War broke out. She petitioned the Canadian War Memorials Fund to go to the front lines as a war artist but was denied.
Once the war ended, the Amputation Club of British Columbia (now the War Amps) commissioned her to paint the battlefields. Producing some 350 works in three years, she faced harsh conditions and saw the devastation of the conflict firsthand. She donated most of her paintings to the National Archives of Canada (now Library and Archives Canada), not wanting to sell her work. Her working conditions led to poor health, and she died in 1954 in relative obscurity and poverty.
For more information about Mary Riter Hamilton:
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/mary-riter-hamilton
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/first-world-war-wwi
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/war-artists
Credits:
Mary Riter Hamilton: Megan Follows
End Narrator: Lyse Doucet
Director: Elad Tzadok and Hayley Gray
1st Assistant Director: Rachel Rose
Director of Photography: Naim Sutherland
Steadi Operator: Leo Harim
1st Assistant Camera: Christian Cummins
Editor: Elad Tzadok
Composer: Iman Habibi
Production designer: Louisa Birkin
Head of wardrobe: Nicole McCormick
Key makeup: LK Gifford
Key Hair: Emma Garland
Written by Elad Tzadok and Hayley Gray
Producers:
Produced by Scopitone Films and Raynor Shimabukuro
Thank you to Sunbelt Rentals Film & TV for donating their services.