The Icelandic Canadian - 01.09.2004, Page 23

Vol. 59 #1
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
21
Margaret Ann Bjornson and the
Making of Iceland on the Prairies
by Gene Walz
What follows is an except from the
memoir One Man’s Documentary, a new
book by Graham Mclnnes. The memoir is
a vivid account of the formative years of
the National Film Board of Canada - 1939
- 1945 by one of its first employees, an
accomplished novelist and broadcaster.
Mclnnes, son of Angela Thirkell and
brother of Colin Maclnnes, both famous
British novelists, had previously written
four other memoirs and two books on
Canadian Art.
During the early years of the NFB,
Winnipeggers played an unusually large
role in the creation of a Canadian film cul-
ture. Ross McLean was instrumental in
establishing the NFB and served as its first
vice commissioner, and the Flonourable
Joseph Thorson was the politician respon-
sible for overseeing the Board’s operations
as Minister for Wartime Services for
Mackenzie King’s liberal government.
Two western Icelanders are especially
noteworthy - Gudrun Bjerring and
Margaret Ann Bjornson. Both women had
a profound impact on the then largely male
bastion of Canada’s documentary film-
making.
Gudrun Bjerring is the more famous of
the two women filmmakers, though per-
haps not outside of a coterie of documen-
tary and/or Canadian film buffs, historians
and academics. In 1945 she made an influ-
ential documentary film called Listen to the
Prairies about the annual Winnipeg Music
Festival, a work that broke with the insis-
tent propaganda style of the NFB at that
time. As writer, director or producer she
contributed to dozens of NFB films, most
notably The People’s Bank (1943) about a
Starbuck, Manitoba credit union, Opera
School (1952), and The Stratford
Adventure (1954) about the founding of
the Stratford, Ontario Shakespeare Theatre
and festival as well as many films in the
“What Do You Think” and “What’s Your
Opinion” series. She had a special gift for
making films about and for children. For a
while she served as the head of the
Education Unit at NFB. With her husband
Morten Parker (a fellow Winnipegger and
University of Manitoba graduate) she
formed Parker Film Associates in the
1950s, a company that made award-win-
ning documentaries.
Margaret Ann Bjornson was the
daughter of Dr. Olafur Bjornson,
Professor of Obstetrics at the University of
Manitoba School of Medicine. She was
part of an extraordinary cohort of students
of English literature at the university when
Graham Mclnnes recruited her as a
researcher for the movie Iceland on the
Prairies in 1940. Her success on this pro-
ject led to permanent employment at the
NFB, principally as a researcher for Stuart
Legg on the two major film series of World
War II: “Canada Carries On” and “World
in Action.” In keeping with film commis-
sioner John Grierson’s policy, her name is
not found on any films produced during
this period, and little about her can be
found in NFB archives.
After the war Grierson, who had
resigned from the Board, sent her to
England to work on various of his post-
war projects. There she met Arthur Elton,
an outstanding documentary filmmaker
who had gotten his start as a protege of
Grierson at film units associated with the
Empire Marketing Board and General Post
Office in the 1930s. As Lady Elton she
published Annals of the Elton Family,
Bristol Merchants and Somerset
Landowners shortly before her death 1995.
In the accompanying excerpt from
One Man’s Documentary Graham
Mclnnes recounts the story of the making