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The ANFB, set up by a decision of full Cabinet, was formally constituted and held its first meeting at Canberra from June 25–26, 1945. The Cabinet took Grierson’s suggestion and directed that ‘the Board should convene an Inter-Departmental Committee of Commonwealth Departments to assist it in its work’ (Department of Information, 1945, 4 July). A Canadian filmmaker, Ralph Foster, was the first head of the Board. He was the representative of the Canadian National Film Board in Australia at the time the ANFB was formed. He was asked by the Australian government to act as the first ‘film commissioner’ in Australia. After Foster resigned and returned to Canada in 1947, Hawes took over his position, acting under the title ‘producer-in-chief’ of the CFU for more than 20 years. Hawes inherited many perspectives of documentary filmmaking from his mentor Grierson. As Bertrand (1999) wrote, ‘Others have called Stanley Hawes a Grierson man, and he has himself asserted “I tried to preserve the Grierson philosophy and to continue the Grierson spirit” ’ (p. 40).2 J. Hughes (1982) observed that by modelling Grierson’s fashion of changing the British cinema to a nationalistic project, Hawes successfully developed the medium into an instrument for instruction, education, and propaganda in Australian national development.
The Board’s duties, as defined by Cabinet, were: ‘To expand, promote, assist and co-ordinate the production and distribution and the importation of films for purposes of school and adult education, rehabilitation, social development, international understanding, trade and tourist expansion and immigration’ (Commonwealth National Library, 1950, p. 1). The ANFB had two main functions: