Expo '67 and Quebec

We found ourselves back in the woods of Quebec. The family lived in a wooded community that ran up a mountain in the heart of the Gatineau parkland. My Dad formed a partnership with another ex NFB filmmaker down the road from us named Robert Anderson. As soon as we settled in Canada, Dad was commissioned by Tom Slevin, an Executive Producer for National Educational Television, to return to India to direct three films for NET's "Creative Persons": one on celebrated Indian film director Satyajit Ray; one on Ustad Bismillah Khan, a shehnai master, and one on Wealthy Fisher, an aid worker in India.

Between 1965 and 1967, Dad was commissioned to create a multi screen presentation for Expo '67 for the "Man the Producer" Pavilion. Leading up to Expo '67, Dad's partner Robert Anderson was commissioned to prepare a report for the Centennial committee to assess Canada's corporate interest in funding a national film archive for Centennial inspired Canadian content. Both the NFB and the CBC were hoping to garner benefit from this program. As one of many ex-NFB'ers with an axe to grind with his omnipotent ex-employer, Anderson used the report as a vehicle to attack the competency of the National Film Board and it's current practices, claiming a strong preference for CBC's productivity. Andersen timed the release of his report to the media just prior to a parliamentary commission on broadcasting, creating a flurry of defensive activity by the Board. Dad was one of the four agents named in the report that had met with prospective corporate sponsors across Canada, gathering information for Anderson, and his status with the Board was once again tarnished.

Around this time, the Film Board was considering candidates for the next Government Film Commissioner. Once again, Dad's dream of running the NFB was denied. When Under Secretary of State Ernie Steele wrote to John Grierson to get his opinion about Dad, Grierson bashed Dad as a carpet bagger who spent too long away from the "church". Grierson expressed his displeasure at the demise of the North Carolina Film Board, blaming Dad for his lack of political savvy. And because of Dad's association with the Centennial Report, Grierson suggested he might cause a political explosion at the Board.

Then something went terribly wrong with the business partnership with Anderson. We lost everything overnight and suddenly found ourselves back in the old log cabin in Ste. Marguerite Station, living on pork and beans and fish sticks for months while my parents regrouped. Mom and Dad found a studio in Montreal. We had a teenager named Cathy Morgan who watched us while they worked hard in Montreal, picking up whatever film production work they could.