Content
Skip to Main ContentAccessibility Help
As It Happens

'Shameless Propaganda' documentary explores NFB's role in WWII

Shameless Propaganda director Bob Lower watched 400 films created by the National Film Board of Canada in order to make his own documentary about the NFB. During WWII, NFB founder John Grierson was charged with getting Canadians to support England. He commissioned films during that period that focused on Canadiana and all but ignored the war to try to Canadians to support Canada....
CBC Radio ·
As It Happens6:14'Shameless Propaganda' explores role of NFB in WWII
Shameless Propaganda director  Bob Lower watched 400 films created by the National Film Board of Canada in order to make his own documentary about the NFB. During WWII, NFB founder  John Grierson was charged with getting Canadians to support England. He commissioned films during that period that focused on Canadiana and all but ignored the war to try to Canadians to support Canada.
Mr. Lower says that John Grierson believed there was a place in democratic society for propaganda, and embraced his role in a way that was almost antithetical to his counterparts in the USA and UK, who focused on films about the war effort.

Mr. Grierson made films about Canada and kept the picture rosy.

"They are relentlessly positive. They lie by omission."

Hear Robert Lower tell Carol about the selective image of Canada put forward by the NFB, as well as about the grueling process of making his own documentary, above.

Watch Shameless Propoganda at nfb.ca

More from this episode