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him to report on the style of official documentary work in each country and make suggestions about future activity’ (D. Williams, 2008, p. 11). In the post-war period, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada all adopted an open-door policy to attract immigrants. Setting up a film board and producing promotional films was part of the national efforts to accomplish this goal in these countries. With the formation of the ANFB, Grierson played an important role mentoring the Australian government in setting up a film committee. Like the New Zealand Film Board, the ANFB also modelled the Grierson-inspired Canadian Film Board (D. Williams, 2008).
In Grierson’s memo to the prime minister, he strongly urged the government, as its first priority, to ‘set up a government film committee, to serve as a planning committee for the coordination of government film interests and the mobilisation of the film medium for national ends’ (Grierson, 1940, p. 73). He suggested that the Department of Information should be in the central position coordinating affairs relevant to the implementation of filmmaking.
Grierson also suggested the need to produce an organised production plan for the non-theatrical field, including ‘films showing achievements in various branches of national activity, calculated to inspire a sense of Australian citizenship’ (1940, p. 76). After Grierson died in 1972, Stanley Hawes, the former producer-in-chief of the CFU, was interviewed by Anthony Buckley for a documentary compilation on Grierson. In the interview, Hawes (1972) stated,