Introduction: Documentary and cultural policy -- The National Film Board and Government -- Empire Communications and documentary film -- Government documentary film and social science -- Nationalism and internationalism at the National Film Board -- Pages from the story of the way we live : film and citizenship in the 1950s and early 1960s -- New media and new forms of citizenship : the NFB in the 1960s and 1970s -- Documenting difference : the NFB in the 1980s and 1990s -- Conclusion -- Appendix: NFB annual budgets and responsible departments
Summary
Based on newly uncovered archival information and a close reading of numerous NFB films, Projecting Canada explores the NFB's involvement with British Empire communication theory and American social science. Using a critical cultural policy studies framework, Druick develops the concept of "government realism" to describe films featuring ordinary people as representative of segments of the population. She demonstrates the close connection between NFB production policies and shifting techniques developed in relation to the evolution of social science from the 1940s to the present and argues that government policy has been the overriding factor in determining the ideology of NFB films. Projecting Canada offers a compelling new perspective on both the development of the documentary form and the role of cultural policy in creating essential spaces for aesthetic production
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 215-230), filmography (p. 209-213) , and index
