The educational screen (c1922-c1956])

March, 194} ^PmWJc Llbr>r> •^wiww City, M« Page 87 The story of the Canadian Government's fibn production and distribution program to inform and motivate the civilian front. Released by the National Film Board of Canada. Grierson selected film as the most jjowerful medium available for use in a campaign of human betterment. He founded and headed successively the Film Unit of the Empire Marketing Board, the G.P.O. Film Unit. I'-ilm Center (London) and the National Film Board of Canada. "W'hat made documentary successful as a movement." to quote Grierson, "was that in a decade of spiritual weariness it reached out, almost alone among the media, towards the future. Obviously, it was the public purpose within it which commanded govern- mental and other backing." Documentary was a new idea for public education, an idea which grew under strong leadership and with careful planning. Its underlying concept was that the world is in "a phase of drastic change aiTecting every manner of thought and ])ractice, and the public com- prehension of the nature of that change is vital." Each step in the growth of documentary was "an attempt to understand the stubborn raw material of our modern citizenship, and wake the heart and the will to their mastery." W'hen war broke in 1939 and citizens of the western democracies turned toward international fields seeking information and exj)lanations, documentary logically buckled down to the job of presenting creative- ly and firmly the material upon which thinking people might base their answers. While .Americans forged ahead in the production and utilization of military and industrial films, Canada set about a program of pro- duction and di.stribution on the civilian front which has extended far beyond her physical boundaries. In 1939 Grierson became Government Film Com- missioner in Canada. In May the Dominion Govern- ment had pas.sed the National Film Act setting up the National I'^ilm Board of Canada to coordinate the film production and distribution jjrograms of all branches of the national government. Before this the Dominion (Government had confined its film activities pretty much to the tourist field, but as the war went on films to pro- mote tourism were for the mo.st part taken out of dis- tribution and all production of such materials stopped. .Since Canada is physically and spiritually closer to the United .States than any other country it should be in order for Americans to know more of that large area on the other side of the undefended frontier. Canadians read American magazines and books, use American in- dustrial products, and supply Americans with a number of important products. Americans rarely ever read Canadian magazines, but before the war over ten mil- lion Americans visited Canada each year. Perhaps Canada has been so close to the United States that edu- cators have overlooked its history. Some facts stand out. More than half the people of Canada live within one hundred miles of the undefended frontier stretch- ing almost 4,000 miles from coast to coast. Ninety per cent of the population lives within two hundred miles of the border. The people on the Canadian prairies are closer to American midwesterners than to the inhabit- ants of eastern and western Canada. One of the two forms of government under which luigli.sh speaking people live is found in Canada. Americans live under the other form. With a population of only 11.500.000 Canada has made significant contributions to the total program of the United Nations, and bears out well the maxim that the job of every democracy is an international job. So in the matter of films, the National Film Board of Canada set up a program both on the home and foreign fronts. It not only produced films to give people at home information on the activities and welfare of Ca- nadian soldiers, sailors and airmen at home and abroad, but broadened its program to include problems of major international concern. To use Grierson's phrase, the National Film Board concerned itself "primarily with the relation of local strategies to larger world ones." A series of two-reelers was produced at the rate of one subject a month and distributed lx)th theatrically and non-theatrically. First in the international series was ChurchiU's Island, and this was followed by This Is Blitc, Food Weapon of Conquest, New Soldiers Are Tough, Inside Fighting Russia, Inside Fighting China, Mask of Nippon, and Fighting Freighters. United Artists Corporation is distributing these titles under the caption "World in Action" not only in the United States, but also in South America and many other parts of the world. Distribution is on a commercial basis. As