Doc celebrates the military concept of ‘Home’

Images of Major (Ret’d) Rene Boileau past and present are depicted in a promotional photo for the film The Home Front: In the footsteps of Canadian Armed Forces families. Boileau’s daughter, St. John’s-based director Renée Boileau, and cinematographer Tiffanie Green will begin filming their documentary in Esquimalt next month before traveling to other military bases across the country in spring 2018. Photo by Tiffanie Green

Peter Mallett, Staff Writer ~

Are you unpacking or packing up for your latest posting? If you believe ‘home is where the heart is,’ independent documentary filmmaker Renée Boileau wants to interview you.

From Sept. 13 to 17, CFB Esquimalt will mark the starting point of the Newfoundland-based filmaker’s ambitious 10,000-kilometer, cross-country journey to interview military personnel at bases in all of Canada’s provinces and territories. The Home Front: In the footsteps of Canadian Armed Forces families will be the 53-year-old engineerturned-director’s first movie collaboration with her best friend and cinematographer Tiffinie Green.

In spring 2018, Boileau and Green plan to take their production on the road and follow Boileau’s father, Major (Ret’d) René Boileau, across the country. During the journey he will revisit bases where he trained and served throughout his military career. Together, father and daughter will gather stories from new and long-serving military personnel that reveal their beliefs and experiences about their notion of ‘home.’

“The concept behind my film is that Canadian Armed Forces members have a completely different culture than other Canadians, because they have given something up that most Canadians take for granted: a permanent home,” says Renée. “Most Canadians know where their home is but often when people join the military they are really taking a huge leap of faith into the unknown and giving up many personal freedoms for the protection of the freedom of others.”

Living the nomadic lifestyle of a military family and never having a permanent, geographical home is a concept the director says she was all-too familiar with growing up. Her father was a navigator with the Royal Canadian Air Force, and by his retirement in 1992 she says her family had remade their home in a multitude of locations, including Edmonton, Ottawa, Trenton, and even Lahr, Germany. Renée says she never realized the importance of having a permanent home until she settled in her adopted and self-proclaimed hometown of St. John’s, NL, surrounded by a tight-knit community of multi-generational Newfoundlanders.

While she’s at CFB Esquimalt next month, Boileau is looking to interview sailors, soldiers, aviators, and their families from all walks of life and levels of experience about their concept of home, including questions such as:

Why did you join the Forces and what have you gained from being part of it?
What does it mean to be homesick?
How do you know when you’re home?

For more information about The Home Front and how to take part, visit their website www.thehomefrontdoc.ca or contact Renée Boileau directly at  renee.boileau@gmail.com.