"CANADA CARRIES ON"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 131, 26 December 1941, Page 14

"CANADA CARRIES ON"

And Documentary Films Tell The Story

By

EDWARD

BUCKMAN

HERE is a bigger story behind this article than the news of Canadian films given by its author, Edward Buckman, who helps to make films for the Canadian National Film Board. The film news of the day is not that the marital relations of the Barrymores are public property, or that men’s and women’s bathrooms in Hollywood are now labelled "Rhett" and "Scarlett"; but that film is now being used over wider and wider fields to show real things happening. Buckman tells of some of the work in Canada. Australia is busy at the same process-an officially sponsored machine for making films is turning them out almost fast enough to keep up with the pace of people and events these hurried days. In Britain, the work begun by Grierson and a few small units of documentary filmmakers has now expanded into a major branch of the Ministry of Information. "Target For To-night" is ian example of their work. And in New Zealand now the New Zealand National Film Unit is working at top speed to 'keep New Zealand in line with other countries in coverage, and equal to or ahead of other units in quality and conception, Comparison

of the progress and technique of the work in each country will interest any filmgoer who cares to become a "fan": of this new idea in films. Broadly speaking, the British productions are technically first. rate, and obviously produced with the best of equipment used by careful and artistic minds. But they are not fast. They somehow contrive even to slow down a war. Canadian and Australian films, on the other hand, are cut short and fast, and produced with lots of noise. In New Zealand, although it is early yet to judge, a completely different style seems to be developing. It is becoming a medium, probably a happy medium, between the light touch of the British method, and the heartiness of the heavy Colonial hand in Canadian and Australian films. Newborn as they are, each country’s unit seems to be developing a national characteristic, keyed, perhaps, by the soft lights of the English landscape, the breadth of land in Canada or Australia, and the wind, sunshine, and cloud of narrow little New Zealand. Here, at all events, is an inside story from the Canadian unit.

ITH pace almost as highpitched as that which characterises their . films, the units of the National Film Board of Canada are _ to-day, under the harsh directness of Canadian light, working all over the Dominion. Seldom has a country whose population is around the 12,000,000 mark undertaken so extensive a cinematographic production programme. But the National Film Board has John Grierson for its Commissioner. His very name spells the reason for Canada’s accelerated film output. In 1938, Mr. Grierson came to Canada to make a survey of the possibilities here for moving picture publicity. The moment was psychological, not only for his entrance upon the Canadian scene but for the formation, in May, 1939, of the National Film Board of Canada. Momentously, September brought the war. As the conflict has taken on its world proportions, the Dominion’s geographic situation and varied natural resources have qualified her as a most practical producer of the tools of war and as an ideal training ground for the Empire’s airmen. Automatically, the moving picture stepped into front rank as an unequalled medium to tell about Canada, and; through her war effort, about that of the Empire. By 1940, the National Film Board in co-operation with the Office of Public Information, had launched the Canada Carries On films. Taking the statement in either of two ways, the Canada Carries On series has made film history. Not only do the pictures make history in film form in that they record the many phases, at home and abroad, of the present struggle; but alsc they themselves have been making film history through their technique. More and more the Canada Carries On releases have come to be edited to a staccato, contrapuntal style. This both clarifies and contrasts the facts presented; cause i: balanced against effect, preparation against consummation,

The Story of Oil The development and crystallisation of this particular technique must have been clear to anyone who has watched the series through a number of its releases. Battle For Oil, the latest issue (at this October writing), discloses the strategic value of oil and gasoline to the warfare of to-day. The picture packs a wallop like. one of the roustabout’s sledgehammers in the oil fields it shows. From the now familiar Canadian scene of seven o’clock curfew for all gasoline sales, with filling station attendants telling motorists no more gas can be sold that evening, Battle For Oil sweeps across the world’s oil situation, to Iran, to Baku, to the Dutch East Indies, to the Russian front, to the synthetic oil refineries of Nazi Germany working day and night, and night and day bombed by the R.A.F. Finally, the film brings us back to Canada, and shows how the small but efficient Turner Valley oil field ot Alberta in Western Canada is being scientifically expanded.

Naturally, with the title Canada Carries On, the series has to a large extent featured Canada and the Canadian war effort. But anyone who has watched the course of the series to date will have realised how all-embracing it has been; how its films have revealed not only what Canada is doing, but also the progress of affairs in other parts of the Empire and on battlefronts, in many widely- separated lands. Battle For Oil had this worldwide scope. So did an earlier release Everywhere In The World, Churchill's Island, on the othef hand, pictured conditions in England, from the time when the "Battle of Britain" began, through last winter’s dark days and darker nights of air raids, to the brighter summer. Strategy of Metals was a picture with world-wide connotations, and yet one which had a decidedly Canadian slant. New Zealand Interest New Zealanders will probably have found a good deal of "local" interest in the August release Soldiers All. This film had a section devoted to the R.N.Z.A.F,

training in Canada. It demonstrated how the underlying sincerity of their formal official welcome when they disembarked at a Western Canadian port was warmly continued by the informal reception given the "boys from down under" by citizens throughout the Dominion. Initially, the series releases are issued in 35mm size for distribution to theatres. They are screened in some 900 theatres across Canada, are distributed throughout the British Empire, and are seen in nearly every friendly country as well. After a stipulated period exclusively for theatre showings, the Canada Carries On films are reduced to 16 mm size and made easily available for "non-theatrical" circulation in schools, museums, COmr munity centres, church halls and anywhere projection equipment is at hand and an audience ready to gather. But these are only a fraction of the "non -theatrical" productions of the National Film Board. There are very many others, mostly made to show what Canada is and what her peoples are like -both to- Canadians themselves and to the world. Often this type of picture is prepared by the Film Board at the specific request of one of the various departments which function under the Dominion Government. Recently, for example, Bacon For Britain, was made for the Department of Agriculture. This film followed the Canadian hog from the time it left the farm until its treated carcase was baled and ready for shipment to Britain as Canadian bacon. Any film made for the National Gallery of Canada would be expected to have beauty, and Canadian Landscape, the first of what is hoped will be a series on Canadian art, more than justifies our expectations. Picturing New Phases / Tentatively scheduled for release this fall and winter are a number of productions which will show phases of Canadian life not previously recorded by the "documentary" film. There will be a picturisation of French-Canadian farm life in Quebec’s Eastern townships, where daily routine has followed an almost identical pattern for centuries, In sharp (Continued on next page)

(Continued from previous page) contrast, another film will portray the social life in the newer mining towns of Canada’s North Country. A broad sociological investigation of the Canadian scene is also contemplated. At its inception, the National Film Board was largely administrative and advisory, However, in the spring of 1941, its results having been signally successful, the board was voted complete control of the original Canadian Government film unit, and now takes care of the Dominion’s film requirements. Just as he did in England for tne Empire Marketing Board, and the General Post Office, Mr. Grierson has collected about him a keenly interested and talented staff. This time, however, he has been able to secure as supervisors one or two of those who worked with him before, and have had long experience in the documentary film.