john grierson the politics of propaganda by gary evans Stuart Legg and J o hn Grierson were playing for high stakes again st Naz i propaganda chief Goebbels If Johll Griersun and th e documentary film are nearly svnony­ operating "in the quiet light of ordinary humanism." mous in th e lexicon of film, few people realize how complex He bel,ieved the task of propaganda was to speak intimately and totalitarian were th e politics of propaganda which were and quietly about real things and real people. For the rest of intertwined in his philosophl'. In this article we shall examine his life he reiterated dogmatically the theme of propaganda, some major aspects of his thought and try to demonstrate how service and community: "We can, by propaganda, widen the his philosoph1' was applied in th e wartime context at the National Film Board of Canada. horizons of the schoolroom and give to every individual, each in his place and work, a living conception of the community When Grierson was a graduate student at the University of which he has the privilege to serve." Grierson's propaganda Chicago from 1924-27, the core of his philosophy crystallized crusade though secular, had its roots at least partly in his as he rejected Walter Lippmann's pessimistic belief that in this Calvinist upbringing. " [ derive my authority from Moses" century the few had to do the thinking for the many. he would say late in life . This attitude also allowed him to Lippmann's pessimism stemmed from a belief that there was avoid partisan politics and to protect the documentary move­ neither time nor adequate information for the citizens to make ment from partisan attack. To Grierson's political masters in informed judgements. Grierson resisted this analysis and Canada, he was a 'hot gospeller' who, while bolstering their donned the cloak of the totalitarian propagandist. He cl aimed wartime Government, would eventually fall victim to his own that education, which he equated with propaga nda, was the propaganda. tool to serve as the active instrument of the democratic idea, Grierson skirted political labels quite easily. With the world 12jCinema Canada at war in the early 1940's, he insisted that the State was the faith in neighborliness. (Note the soft-co re internationalism.) machinery by which the best interests of the people are The fum did not need to speak of victory, for the narrator secured. Simultaneously he denied the advent of soc iali sm. stated dramatically that Ca nada had a secret weapon: ~he "We are entering upon a new and interim society which is simple power of Canadians fi ghting of their own free will. neither capitalist nor socialist but in which we can achieve (Conscription had not yet become necessary.) This in spiring central planning without lo ss of individual initiative, ... in phrase seemed to contain the essence of wha t Canada's free which public unity and discipline can be achieved without men and women were fighting fo r. forgetting the humanitarian virtues .. ." In 1941 , Churchill's Island won the NFB's first Academy He was also careful to distinguish between being totali­ Award for best documentary film. Legg and his unit did not tarian for ev il and totalitarian for good. As a pracitioner of try to cover up the fact that battered Britain was on the defen­ the good, he felt he was "serving the grea te st mobilization sive . If the film was a va ri ation of the 'Britain can take it' of the public imagination since the Churches lost their grip." th eme, it was aggressive too. Germany had failed to reckon And one can discover in so many of Canada's wa rtime propa­ with th e RAF above and the people's army below. Narrator ganda film s an attempt to transmit comprehension of the Lorn e Greene, now recogni ze d as Canada's 'voice of demo­ dramatic patterns which were the backbone of society . Under cracy', concluded authoritatively that Britain had an inner Grierson's guidance, information became a two-way process strength , a stubborn calm which iron and steel and bombs between State and people , people and State. This activity, could never pierce. His la st words bravely flaunted the chal­ linked to a commitment to in sp ire rather than to preach, wa s lenge, "Come- if you dare." no less than a war for men's minds. Another number, entitled Women Are Warriors , compared The Canadian films were quite different from British film the important war work of women in England and Russia to propaganda, produced in large part by the original documen­ that of Canada. Russia was prudently labeled a cooperative tary school Grierson had left in England. The British were rather than communist state. It was asserted that Canada concerned with local tactics of defensive warfare , reiterating profited from these two al lied examples. In · an attempt to themes from 'Britian can take it ' to 'B ritain can dish it out co mpliment Canadian women , the narration stated that the too' later in the war. Studiously avo idin g any enuncia tion of women of Canada had learned to turn the domestic needle and war aims other than military victory (Churchill's orders), the thread into the tools of war. Deftness lea rned at home in tradi­ films of the Ministry of Information were with few exceptions, ti onal wo men's roles had come to se rve them we ll in the wa r flaccid endeavours. industry. Reminiscent of ea rl y Soviet techn iq ues of montage, The two theatrical film se rie s (each released monthly) the film employed superb editing to crea te a fast tempo. At which emerged in Canada during the war were Canada Carries one point the film cut three times fr om shots of factory to plane On and The World In Action. (The French vers ions were En to factory in order to dem onst rate how important woman's Avant Canada and Les Reportages) These were group efforts, supportiv e role was to th e war effort. hence they lacked individual credit s. The guiding hand behind The World In Action se ries, started in June , 1942, reached the two Canadian series was Stuart Legg, one of the pione ers out to a wid er audience and had two main goals: first, to relate of the British documentary movement, who in the winter of local strategies to world ones and second , to influence and 1939 had come to Canada to make two fi lms for the Govern­ direc t the political attitu des of North American audiences ment Motion Picture Bureau . When Gri erson became th e first towa rd an internationally ori ented pos twar ethic. Again, the Film Commissioner of the National Film Boa rd , he asked Legg serie s avo ided partisa n politics and conce ntrated upon inspira­ to join him in organizing th ea trical documentary production . ti on. The New York Times praised th ese film s which He and Grierson were in a deadl y chess ga me wit h their at tem pted to give the people grea t hope and faith in them­ nemesis, Nazi propaganda chief Jose ph Goebbels, whose se lv es and , in a brave new world . Th e secret of success, said weekly theatrical newsreel, Wochenschauen , emphasized th e Times, was that the editorial sights of the se rie s' subjects triumphant battle sce ne s and th eme s of in evitable victory, were raised high above the leve l of nati onalism. undersco red by moral e-building mu sic. Legg and his team Our Northern Neighbor exe mplified this approach by it s replied by cutting captured German footage and Al li ed foo ta ge attempt to portray Ru ss ia fairl y. Th e film provid ed an his­ into a monthly an al ysis of the larger strategic plans required to tori cal overv ie w of Ru ss ia and charac teri stically, never once defeat German strategies of world co nquest. The Can adi an used th e wo rd communism. The co mm entary suggested that propaganda was heavil y influen ced by the te chniques and Joseph Stalin , a quieter voice than Trotsky, was leading rhythm of the widely popular American newsreel , The March Ru ss ia to build a pattern of sociali sm for all the wo rld to see. of Time, though the depth of analys is far surpasse d anything The Russian citi ze n was preparing for the promise of ultimate The March of Time had ever done. freedom and goo d livin g after all th ese lea n years. Th e film Canada Carries On , begun in 1940, was made primarily for ended with th e internationalist message , "We seek the Canadian audiences. The series concentrated heavily upon cooperation of all nations, large and small, to elimin ate themes of transport and communication. A con tinued empha­ tyrann y and slave ry, oppression and intoleran ce ." sis on the need to integrate all national forces implied how On e of Grierson's fav ourite fi lms of the se rie s was The War Canada could be totalitarian for the good . With few exceptions For Men's Minds, which he ca ll ed a film on the Lin coln theme: these films avoided hate-monge rin g, parochialism and vilifica­ "Wh en th e common people rise to find their liberty , not the tion of the enemy.