Editing John Grierson (section)

=== Canada  ===
In 1938, Grierson was invited by the Canadian government to study the country's film production.<ref name=":0" /> Grierson sailed at the end of May in 1938 for [[Canada]] and arrived on 17 June.<ref name=":0" /> Grierson met with the Prime Minister, [[William Lyon Mackenzie King]] and also spoke with many important figures across Canada, they were all in agreement of the importance of film in reducing sectionalism and in promoting the relationship of Canada between home and abroad.<ref name=":0" /> The head of the Motion Picture Bureau for Canada, Frank Badgley, did not appreciate Grierson's assessment and criticism of the films made by the Bureau which was that they focused too much on Canada as a place to holiday.<ref name=":0" /> Grierson delivered his report on government film propaganda and the weaknesses he had found in Canadian film production; his suggestion was to create a national coordinating body for the production of films.<ref name=":0" /> An abridged version of the report ran to 66 pages, which was prepared by August in London.<ref name=":0" /> Grierson returned to Britain but was invited back to Canada on 14 October 1938; he returned in November.<ref name=":0" />

==== National Film Board of Canada and Wartime Information Board ====
In 1939, Canada created the National Film Commission, which would later become the [[National Film Board of Canada]]. The bill to create a National Film Board was drafted by Grierson; the bill was introduced in March 1939 and given Royal Assent on 2 May 1939.<ref name=":0" /> Grierson was appointed the first Commissioner of the National Film Board in October 1939.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/john-grierson/|title=John Grierson|website=The Canadian Encyclopedia|access-date=9 May 2018|archive-date=10 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180510050752/http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/john-grierson/|url-status=live}}</ref> When Canada entered [[World War II]] in 1939, the NFB focused on the production of [[propaganda]] films, many of which Grierson directed. For example, captured footage of German war activity was incorporated in documentaries that were distributed to the then-neutral United States.

Grierson grieved the death of his sister Ruby in 1940; she was on the  ''[[SS City of Benares]]'' while it was evacuating one hundred children to Canada.<ref name=":0" /> The ''Benares'' was torpedoed four days after its sailing, and sank within thirty-one minutes in a Force 10 Gale.<ref name=":0" /> Ruby Grierson had managed to enter Lifeboat 8, full with more than thirty people, including eighteen girls and two female escorts, but as it was lowering, a wave crashed into the lifeboat, sending it into a vertical position, and throwing everyone in that boat into the sea. No one from Boat 8 survived. In the end, of 406 people on board, only 148 people survived, including only 19 of 100 children.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nagorski |first=Tom |title=Miracles on the Water: The Heroic Survivors of a World War II U-boat Attack |publisher=Hyperion (now Hachette Books) |year=2006 |isbn=9781401301507 |location=United States |language=English}}</ref> Grierson resigned from his position in January 1941. Over his year as Commissioner at the National Film Board 40 films were made; the year before the Motion Picture Bureau had made only one and a half.<ref name=":0" /> Recommendations for the future running were made for the National Film Board, and Grierson was persuaded to stay for a further six months to oversee the changes.<ref name=":0" />

During WWII, Grierson was a consultant to prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King as a minister of the [[Wartime Information Board]]. He remained on the National Film Board and managed to complete his duties to Wartime Information Board as well through his deputies that aided him in the task.<ref name=":0" /> Grierson was asked to keep his dual role until January 1944, however, he resigned in 1943 as the job he had been asked to complete had been finished as far as he was concerned.<ref name=":0" /> Before he finished with the Wartime Information Bureau Grierson was also offered the role of chairman of the [[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation]] but turned it down as he believed that this would give him too much power.<ref name=":0" />

On 26 February 1942, Grierson attended the Academy Awards and received the award on behalf of the National Film Board for ''[[Churchill's Island]]''.<ref name=":0" /> Grierson also presented the award for the best documentary, the first time that this award was given by the Academy.<ref name=":0" /> After the [[Dieppe Raid]], there were reports that Canadians that had been taken as prisoners of war had been manacled under Hitler's orders.<ref name=":0" /> Grierson proposed that the Film Board show how the German prisoners of war were being treated in Canada through a film. Ham Wright directed the film showing the German sailors that had been captured; playing football, enjoying meals and looking healthy.<ref name=":0" /> Only one copy of the film was made, it was sent to the Swiss Red Cross who deliberately let it fall into German hands.<ref name=":0" /> Grierson was to learn at a later date that Hitler had indeed watched the film and ordered that the Canadian prisoners of war released from their manacles.<ref name=":0" />

After the war, the National Film Board focused on producing documentaries that reflected the lives of Canadians. The National Film Board has become recognized around the world for producing quality films, some of which have won [[Academy Awards]]. The National Film Board had become one of the largest film studios and was respected around the world for what it had achieved; it had especially had influence in Czechoslovakia and China.<ref name=":0" />

In December 1943 Grierson was elected by the Permanent Film Committee of the National Council for Canadian-Soviet Friendship to become honorary chairman.<ref name=":0" /> One of the tasks at the National Film Board that Grierson strongly pushed for the films being produced to be in French as well as English.<ref name=":0" /> He also pushed for a French unit in the National Film Board.<ref name=":0" />

Grierson concentrated on documentary film production in New York after resigning his post following in August 1945; his resignation was to take effect in November 1945.<ref name=":0" /> In 1946 Grierson was asked to testify as part of the investigation of the [[Gouzenko Affair]] regarding communist spies in the National Film Board and the Wartime Information Board, rumours spread that he had been a leader of a spy ring during his offices with the Canadian government, a rumour he denied.<ref name=":0" /> Due to the rumours, the projects that Grierson had been trying to put together were not commissioned and he was barred from taking an important position at the [[United Nations]].<ref name=":0" /><ref name=var>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|date=10 May 1989|page=107|title=John Grierson - Canadian film pioneer with influence, talent 'unlike any other'}}</ref>