Propaganda cinema at the NFB – NFB.ca A few months back I wrote about the Canada Carries On series of propaganda films that were shot specifically for theatrical distribution in Canada during the early days of World War II. (You can read about this series here.)
These films were so successful that it was decided to produce a new series that would complement them by covering the war from a broader international point of view. This was The World in Action. John Grierson, the NFB’s film commissioner as well as the head of the Wartime Information Board, envisaged a series for domestic and international audiences that would present the global strategy of the war. Patterned after the very popular American March of Time newsreels, The World in Action would have a Canadian view of things but would deal with international themes.
Grierson had obtained official access to all British and American film material as well as enemy footage intercepted by the Navy. Ottawa became the allied war repository for film material for the duration of the war.
With access to all this great material, one key thing remained to be done: find a distributor in the important American market. In early 1942, Grierson went to Hollywood and met with Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford of United Artists (UA). He convinced them of the importance of distributing these films. UA agreed, and a deal was made to distribute the first twelve issues throughout Canada, the USA and Great Britain. Stuart Legg was brought over from Canada Carries On to produce the new series. Lorne Greene narrated the films in his own inimitable style.
The very first issue, Inside Fighting Russia (a.k.a. Our Russian Ally), ran into trouble immediately. UA would not distribute it in the United States as they considered it to be communist propaganda. The film is a look at the Soviet Union’s fight against the Nazis. While well-intentioned, the film lays it on a bit thick as to the strength and power of the Soviet people. The view presented of the communist system is naively oversimplified. While the USA and Soviets were fighting a common enemy, America’s mistrust of communism could not be dispelled so easily.
After this unfortunate start, the films started appearing in theatres about once a month. They would screen in 6,000 cinemas stateside and 1,000 in Great Britain, being seen by 3 million people in the USA alone. In Canada 23 copies in English would be released to theatres with a further two copies going out in French. These would circulate for about six months throughout the country.
Controversy dogged this series from beginning to end. The January 1945 issue Balkan Powder Keg was released in three theatres in Canada before being pulled. The Canadian Government forced the withdrawal after complaints from British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The British did not appreciate the criticism of their foreign policy in the Balkans as seen in the film. The whole thing was eventually cut down to 10 minutes and released in December 1945 after the war was over under the title Spotlight on the Balkans, basically a watered-down version of the original. Surprisingly, a shot of nude exotic dancers in Bucharest was retained in the new version. How this slipped by the censors is beyond me.
