Graham McInnes: Canada's NFB
His Memoir One Man's Documentary Shares National Film Board History
As writer, director and producer of many the NFB's films, McInnes offers insight into the early years of the Board and its activities since WWII.
ONE MAN'S DOCUMENTARY: A Memoir of the Early Years of the National Film Board written by Graham McInnes and edited and with an introduction by Gene Walz (U. of Manitoba Press, Winnepeg, 2004) is an informative, engaging memoir on his years on the Board as a producer, director, and screenwriter.
The Board was formed by an Act of Parliament in 1939 out of a chronic dissatisfaction with the state and prospects of Canada's film industry. Since Canada was drawn into World War II along with Britain in 1939, the Board's first order of business was to produce films to help the war effort.
The Scotsman John Grierson, whose report had prompted the Canadian government to establish the Board, was appointed Film Commissioner. Its work producing and distributing films informing the public about Canada's stake in the war and boosting morale on the home front became an integral part of its early oevre.
The personality and work of John Grierson runs like a thread through the material. Walz notes in his introductory overview of the NFB's history that McInnes has been kinder to Grierson than "revisionist historians." Chapters on different groups the NFB worked are titled American Professionals, Wizards and Pied Pipers, The Women's Touch. Forty-five films are listed in McInnes's filmography from 1940 to 1946.
