Canadian Film Weekly (Aug 22, 1945)

HYE BOSSIN, Managing Editor Address all communications—The Managing Editor, Canadian Film Weekly, 25 Dundas Square, Toronto, Canada. Published by Film Publications of Canada Ltd., 25 Dundas Square, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Phone ADelaide 4317. Price 5 cents each or $2.00 per year. Entered as Second Ciass Matter. Printed by Eveready Printers Limited, 78 Wellington Street West, Toronto, Ontario. Says Grierson: § (Continued from Page 1) scope. The Film Board is strong and the Canadian supply of documentary and educational films from government sources is already a powerful force in the country, but other supplementary sources of documentary and educational supply ought now to be developed if the film is to play its fullest part in the national life. é 4 In particular, the production of films on international themes and the international exchange of films of common social interest ought now to be strengthened, if the new interest in international relations, especially on this continent, is to be adequately fed. This is now, and I hope properly, my principal interest. The Board and the Government have been most generous to me in allowing and encouraging a policy which has put the work of the Film Board on an international basis. During the war, the Board has pursued the policy of using its influence, both theatrical and non-theatrical, to ~ serve others of the United Nations and to place at all times the international interest on a level with the national one. It has done so without occasional criticism from unimaginative and isolationist quarters, but this policy has, of course, been justified in the increasing prestige of our government film operation at home and abroad, and in the consequent prestige—and I think it may be notable—which has accrued to Canada as a young, progressive and unselfish nation. I cannot, however, reasonably ask the Board to go as far on this line as I, myself, wish to go, without straining the Board’s proper terms of reference. I must, accordingly, in justice to the Board, take my present step. I propose, specifically, to produce for international theatre circulation two monthly series of films: one dealing with international affairs, the other with scientific and technological developments in various parts of the world. I hope also to form an organization for the extension of documentary production in Canada for non-theatrical circulation at home and abroad, and I look to close association in this regard with my documentary colleagues in Canada _ ,the United Kingdom, the United’ States and elsewhere. I hope to maintain my association with the Canada Foundation and with the various movements in Canada for educational progress. : I take this opportunity of thanking the Board for its personal kindness to me and the confidence which it has shown in my commissionership. I am grateful to my friends in the Departments, the film industry, the press and the radio who have supported our work and made my part in it so capable. ; I am also grateful to the Government, and especially to the Prime Minister, for encouraging the Board’ in policies which may sometimes have appeared at first exploratory and novel, and for giving the seniors among us the cpportunity of training a large number of young Canadians in the technicalities of a new and difficult field. This new group of creative and educational workers, I am sure, are the best justification for the four years of we have done together since we took over the Motion Picture Bureau in July of 1941. I would be indeed sorry to leave them if I did not know that there is no group anywhere of its kind more spirited or with greater’ prospect. I can only trust that the Board and the Government will continue to maintain them in the hope and’ faith to which they are, in the national interest, entitled, and that their freedom for imaginative public service will be as strongly defended and as greatly encouraged in the future as in the past. I also trust that the Board and the Government will | continue to consider film as the lively and important medium it is, and a powerful instrument in serving the public (Continued on Page 8) Canadian FILM WEEKLY Vol. 10, No. 834 August 22, 1945 ‘ August 22, 1945 John Grierson Quits National Film Board (Continued from Page 1) happiest job of its kind anywhere. There are, however, new things I ought to do in the field of documentary films.” Grierson, regarded as the father of the documentary film in its present form, is famed throughout the film world for his. energetic and original approach to JOHN GRIERSON | that phase of moviemaking. His work since the war has brought unstinted praise from national leaders of all parties and from representatives of other governments. The latter have, through the permission of the government, benefitted from the facilities of Canada’s Federal film agency, the finest of its kind in the world. So effective has been the work of Grierson that his resignation was news throughout Canada, winning space in hundreds of papers despite the historic news breaking every day. The Scottish-born Grierson, now 47, has been showing the strain of his work recently and it is understood that he will rest after he withdraws officially from his present connection. His capacity for work has won the admiration of all who have some understanding of the accomplishment represented by the development of the National Film Board to its present condition. When Grierson set out to provide Canada with a new medium of communication nationally and internationally, it was in a country ‘with little production personnel to draw on for such a task. He and his associates built a house while living in it—and quickly enough to keep pace with the unprecedented expansion of the Dominion in every way, as required by the war effort. “I look forward to continuing in the future my warm association with the staff of the Board,” he stated. “I would certainly wish freely to place any experience I have at their disposal and to help their work in any way I can, not least in their growing association with their documentary colleagues elsewhere and the film industry as a whole.” Grierson, a graduate of Glasgow University, spent three years in the British navy during the last war. After travelling in the USA on a Rockfeller Foundation scholarship, he returned to Britain to organize the Em pire Marketing Board film cen tre. His work until 1938, increased because of growing realization of its importance, was carried for various government. sections and private firms. In 1938 he was invited to advise Ottawa on its film needs and while on his way to Australia and New Zealand for a similar purnose in 1939 the post of Dominion film commissioner was offered him and accepted. Since then the National Film Board product has won international exhibition in all languages and in both theatrical and non-theatrical situations. For a while Grierson was also head of the Wartime Information Board. He brought to all his work purpose and direction emanating from a humanitarian point of view. What made his work vitally important to Canada was that, with the onslaught of war, the average person sought desperately for understanding and National Film Board subjects reflected the methods of Grierson and his key men of relating subtly humanitarianism to the logic of events. Thus not only were the needs of the moment set before audiences but the nobility of purpose behind unpleasant tasks was explained. So well was this approach developed that Hollywood awarded Grierson an Academy Award for his “Churchill’s Island.” Grierson, with the aid of key men, has developed expert technicians in every department and this will mean much to the future of the Board. The talents of Grierson, holder of a degree in Philosophy and a writer and lecturer of distinction, were united to serve the needs of Canada and: the United Nations, He was, it is generally agreed, one of those rare indi‘viduals—the right man in the right spot at the right time,