This is a sweeping history of not only the National Film Board but of the Canada, still a fledgling country, that the NFB helped shape by showcasing the country for thousands of movie-goers who knew little of their geographically and ethnically diverse country. This is the story of British ex-pat John Grierson who invented the nascent NFB as a propaganda machine at the invitation of then prime minister Mackenzie KIng. But the NFB, in its 500 wartime movies that this film is about, not only recruited Canadians to the war effort, extolling the virtues of Canadians to convince they could fight in the battlefields and war factories, but gave dignity to Canadians in all walks of life. And it is a candid movie, the NFB, still a government agency, showcasing its own failures in, for instance, stereotyping regions and failing to create sufficient French-language films. One does wonder if any other countries' government film agencies would be given free reign to expose their self-examination in this way.
A final note: the narration is superb - balanced, ironic, often amusing and always enlightening.
A final note: the narration is superb - balanced, ironic, often amusing and always enlightening.