page_title: National Film Board of Canada
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: National Film Board of Canada / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Albert William Trueman (1902 - 1988). Served as President of the University of Manitoba (1945-48) and of University of New Brunswick (1948-53), and as University of Western Ontario (1965-67).
context_page_description: The National Film Board of Canada is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries, and alternative dramas. In total, the NFB has produced over 3,000 productions since its inception, which have won over 5,000 awards. The NFB reports to the Parliament of Canada through the Minister of Canadian Heritage. It has English-language and French-language production branches.
context_section_description: In 1938, the Government of Canada invited John Grierson, a British documentary film producer who introduced the term "documentary" to English-speaking film criticism, to study the state of the government's film production. Up to that date, the Government Motion Picture Bureau, established in 1918, had been the major Canadian film producer. The results of Grierson's report were included in the National Film Act of 1939.
  In 1939, the Act led to the establishment of the National Film Commission, which was subsequently renamed the National Film Board (NFB). The NFB was founded in part to create propaganda in support of the Second World War.
  In 1940, with Canada at war, the NFB launched its Canada Carries On series of morale boosting theatrical shorts. The success of Canada Carries On led to the creation of The World in Action, which was more geared to international audiences.
  In this period, other NFB films were issued as newsreels, such as The War Is Over (1945), intended for theatrical showings. These films were based on current news and often tackled wartime events as well as contemporary issues in Canadian culture.
  Early in its history, the NFB was a primarily English-speaking institution. Based in Ottawa, 90% of its staff were English and the few French Canadians in production worked with English crews. There was a French Unit that was responsible for versioning films into French but it was headed by an Anglophone. And in NFB annual reports of the time, French films were listed under "foreign languages". Screenwriter Jacques Bobet, hired in 1947, worked to strengthen the French Unit and retain French talent and was appointed producer of French versions in 1951. During that period, commissioner Albert Trueman, sensitive to how the Quiet Revolution was beginning to transform Quebec society, brought in Pierre Juneau as the NFB's "French Advisor". Juneau recommended the creation of a French production branch to enable francophone filmmakers to work and create in their own language.
  During the 1940s and early 1950s, the NFB employed 'travelling projectionists' who toured the country, bringing films and public discussions to rural communities.
caption: Albert William Trueman was NFB commissioner from 1953–1957
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