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NFB and the Beginnings of Contemporary Documentary

NFB and the Beginnings of Contemporary Documentary. National Film Act in 1939 Mandate: to produce and distribute films serving the national interest Grierson 1938 - report prompted the National Film Act . Veteran Filmmakers to Canada.

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NFB and the Beginnings of Contemporary Documentary

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  1. NFB and the Beginnings of Contemporary Documentary INI325Y

  2. National Film Act in 1939 • Mandate: to produce and distribute films serving the national interest • Grierson 1938 - report prompted the National Film Act INI325Y

  3. Veteran Filmmakers to Canada • Stuart Legg, Basil Wright, Joris Ivens, Raymond Spottiswoode, Evelyn Spice, Jean Rouch (later) • Also young Canadians • Canada Carries On • World in Action INI325Y

  4. 1945 to 1955 • Grierson and other important experts departed right after the war • 1950, “official” mandate - The National Film Act. • NFB to “produce and distribute and to promote the production and distribution of films designed to interpret Canada to Canadians and to the rest of the world” INI325Y

  5. 1955 to the Present • 1956: production centre moved technical installations to Montreal • head office remained in Ottawa • 1957, Quebecois commissioner • 2 autonomous sectors • 1970s, Studio D – women • decentralization - production & distribution offices outside Montreal INI325Y

  6. 1950: 4 units • A: agricultural films • B: sponsored, scientific, cultural, animation • C: theatrical films, “Canada Carries On” • D: international affairs, special projects INI325Y

  7. Unit B • Roman Kroitor, Wolf Koenig, Colin Low, John Spotton, Terence McCartney-Filgate, Arthur Lipsett, Stanley Jackson • exec prod Tom Daly • willingness to take risks INI325Y

  8. City of Gold (1957) • prototype • Colin Low found photos • Wolf Koenig & Roman Kroitor • New idea: actuality + stills • invented camera-plotting device • narration – Pierre Berton INI325Y

  9. Lonely Boy (1961) • Koenig & Kroitor • scriptless approach - radical • structuring in cutting room • spontaneous content (sometimes) rigourous structure – theme • Sloppy – jumpcuts, mike, look at cam, filmmakers present INI325Y

  10. Very Nice, Very Nice (1962) • Arthur Lipsett • outs from other films • Cf. Godard’s Weekend, “A Film Found on the Scrap Heap” • Bomb, international politics, materialism, pollution, noise, alienation • Prototype INI325Y

  11. Technological Innovation • portable equipment • Synch sound recording - late 1950s • Candid Eye - later direct cinema, cinema verite • Les Raquetteurs (1958) • wireless microphone • IMAX - Kroitor & Low INI325Y

  12. Bibliography • Michael Dorland, ed., The Cultural Industries in Canada: Problems, Policies and Prospects (Toronto: James Lorimer, 1996) • Gary Evans, In the National Interest: A Chronicle of the National Film Board of Canada from 1949-1989 (Toronto: UTP, 1991). • C.E. Gittings, Canadian National Cinema: Ideology, Difference and Representation (London: Routledge, 2002) INI325Y

  13. More Bibliography • John Grierson Project, John Grierson and the NFB (Toronto: ECW Press, 1984). • D.B. Jones, Movies and Memoranda: An Interpretative History of the National Film Board of Canada (Ottawa: CFI, 1981). • Joyce Nelson, The Colonized Eye: Rethinking the Grierson Legend (Toronto: Between the Lines, 1988). INI325Y

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