Canada Carries On ( French : En avant Canada ) was a series of short films by the National Film Board of Canada which ran from 1940 to 1959. The series was created as morale-boosting propaganda films during the Second World War . With the end of the war, the series lost its financial backing from the Wartime Information Board , but continued as an NFB series of theatrical shorts that included newsreels as well as animated shorts .
20-681: The series was initially produced by Stuart Legg , who also directed many of the early films. The first film in the series was Legg's Atlantic Patrol , released in April 1940, about the Royal Canadian Navy 's role in protecting convoys from Halifax to the United Kingdom from U-boat attack. One of the most famous films from this series was his Churchill's Island , released in Canada in June 1941 and winner of
40-723: A total of 173 French titles before the program's end in 1959. Some films were distributed internationally in Australia , the UK and the United States (by Telenews ), in India (by Fox Film Corporation ) and the West Indies (by Inter-continental ). These were usually titles that dealt with international rather than Canadian issues. One such film was Warclouds in the Pacific , released just one week before
60-619: Is thought that, between 1952 and 1962, he also produced promotional films for Shell-Mex and BP , Imperial Airways , Anglo-Scottish Pictures and the Australian National Film Board . He retired in 1962. After retiring from filmmaking, Legg published four books: Trafalgar : An Eye-Witness Account of a Great Battle (1966), Jutland: An Eye-witness Account of a Great Battle (1967), The Heartland (1970, dedicated to Grierson and re-issued in 1991 as The Barbarians of Asia ), and The Railway Book: An Anthology (1988). Legg
80-506: Is thought that, from 1941 to 1945, he produced and directed most of the films in these series; he is credited with 46. His assistant and researcher was Tom Daly , who would become the NFB's most prolific producer. The World in Action , which began in 1942, appeared each month in 800 Canadian theatres, reaching 4 million viewers; in the U.S., it screened in 6,500 theatres and reached millions. At
100-645: The Canadian Government Motion Picture Bureau . In this role, he was responsible for the training of filmmakers; when the Bureau and the NFB merged in 1941, he was responsible for 55 filmmakers; a year later, it was 293. With Canada at war, Legg's propagandist style was a perfect fit for the morale-boosting films that the NFB wanted to produce; he was given control of the theatrical shorts program, which included two series: Canada Carries On and The World in Action . Records are incomplete but it
120-699: The GPO Film Unit had become the Crown Film Unit and Legg spent three years there as a producer. In 1952, the British government dissolved the Crown Film Unit and Legg became chairman of Film Centre International, a production coordination company which Grierson had founded in 1937. Through Film Centre, Legg produced films for Gaumont-British Instructional and the Shell Film Unit . Records are incomplete, but it
140-405: The attack on Pearl Harbor , warning of an imminent Japanese attack. Stuart Legg Stuart Legg (31 August 1910 – 23 July 1988) was a pioneering English documentary filmmaker. At the 14th Academy Awards in 1941, Legg's National Film Board of Canada film Churchill's Island became the first-ever documentary to win an Oscar . Also in contention for Best Documentary that year
160-744: The Empire Marketing Board was dissolved and the film unit was moved to the General Post Office . Legg would stay with the GPO Film Unit until 1937, when he replaced Paul Rotha as head of the Strand Film Company. At this time, he was commissioned, by the British Film Council , to write the report Money Behind the Screen . In 1938, the government of Canada invited Grierson to examine the country's film production system. In 1939, he
180-515: The Film Unit of the Empire Marketing Board in 1930. The unit was headed by John Grierson , who appointed apprentices such as Basil Wright , Arthur Elton , Edgar Anstey , Stuart Legg , Paul Rotha and Harry Watt . These filmmakers were mostly young, middle-class, educated males with liberal political views. In 1933, the film unit was transferred to the General Post Office . From 1936,
200-546: The end of the war, it was cancelled but Grierson felt that it was commercially viable. He resigned from the NFB and convinced Legg to join him in New York, where he was able to reach a production deal with Universal Pictures . Grierson's reputation was temporarily damaged when he was caught up in the Gouzenko Affair and accused of being a spy; the deal with Universal was cancelled and, in 1946, Legg returned to England. In 1940
220-666: The films were made available on 16 mm to schools, libraries, church basements and factories, extending their life for another year or two. They were also made available to film libraries operated by university and provincial authorities. A total of 199 films were produced before the series ended in 1959. The French-language series En avant Canada was distributed in Quebec and New Brunswick by France Film Distribution in some 60 theatres. Eight to 12 films were produced each year in French; some were versions of English titles, others original, for
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#1732852318397240-431: The first Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) . The narrator for many of the films in the series was Lorne Greene , known for his work on radio broadcasts as a news announcer at CBC . His sonorous recitation led to his nickname, "The Voice of Canada", and when reading grim battle statistics, "The Voice of Doom". The success of Canada Carries On inspired a second NFB series, The World in Action , which
260-497: The movement began to disperse and divisions emerged. Whereas previously the documentary film movement had been located in a single public sector organisation, it separated in the late 1930s into different branches, as filmmakers explored other possibilities for developing documentary film. By 1937, the movement was spread across four different production units: GPO, Shell (headed by Anstey), Strand (headed by Rotha) and Realist (led by Wright). In 1939, Grierson left Britain to work with
280-546: The public informed and involved. He founded the Documentary Film Movement , and recruited several young filmmakers, including Legg. At the time, Grierson was a films officer at the Empire Marketing Board , a government agency which had been formed to encourage trade and national unity. Legg's first film for Grierson was The New Generation (1932), which was said to "exemplify an attempt at the Russian technique." In 1933,
300-508: Was Legg's film Warclouds in the Pacific . Francis Stuart Legg was one of three children born to Ethel Green Legg and Arthur Legg, a solicitor. He attended Marlborough College and St John's College, Cambridge , where he read the mechanical sciences (engineering) tripos . While at Cambridge, he made Varsity (1930) with the university's Film Society, which was followed two years later by Cambridge , produced with "some involvement" from British Instructional Films. Following graduation, Legg
320-472: Was hired as an assistant to director Walter Creighton at Publicity Films. For Creighton, he made two films, and met John Grierson , who would become his mentor and life-long friend and colleague. Grierson had recently returned from studying in the U.S., where he had become very active in the film world. He saw a lack of public engagement and knowledge of events as contributing to threats to democracy, and saw documentary films as an art-form which could also keep
340-597: Was invited back and became the first Commissioner of the National Film Board. He brought Legg to Canada to make two films whose purpose was to promote the Dominion-Provincial Youth Training Program. The films, The Case of Charlie Gordon and Youth Is Tomorrow , are regarded as milestones in the development of a mature, socially responsible documentary movement in Canada. Legg decided to stay in Canada, and became Director of Production for
360-573: Was married to Margaret Amos (1910–2002), daughter of Sir Percy Maurice Amos . They lived at Shooter's Hill , London and had a farm in Lamberhurst , Kent , which may have been Legg's studio. They had three children, including Sir Thomas Legg . Legg died in Wiltshire in 1988. First Films GPO Film Unit Strand Film Company National Film Board of Canada Crown Film Unit Film Centre International Legg's film Churchill's Island
380-413: Was more tailored to international audiences. The series was produced in 35 mm for the theatrical market. Each film was shown in approximately 800 theatres across Canada over a six-month period. They were distributed by Columbia Pictures , and the NFB had an arrangement with Famous Players theatres to ensure that Canadians from coast to coast could see them. After the six-month theatrical tour ended,
400-516: Was preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2005. Documentary Film Movement The Documentary Film Movement is the group of British filmmakers, led by John Grierson , who were influential in British film culture in the 1930s and 1940s. The founding principles of the movement were based on Grierson's views of documentary film. He wished to use film to educate citizens in an understanding of democratic society. The movement began at
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