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By the late 1950s the advent of light portable cameras and synchronous sound equipment meant that NFB filmmakers had a great deal of freedom in filming their subjects. No longer being tied down to huge, immobile noisy cameras meant that filmmakers could go pretty much wherever they wished, film whatever they wanted and get close to their subjects. The other advantage of the portable equipment was that now the filmmaker could make a film with a couple of technicians (essentially a camera person and sound person) instead of the large teams of the past needed to operate the mammoth cameras and sound trucks. Synchronous sound also meant that the subjects in the films could themselves speak on camera in a more spontaneous fashion. This was the era of cinéma vérité, a style of filmmaking that aims for an extreme naturalism, using non-intrusive filming techniques and a hand-held camera.

The NFB continued to make films on the diverse cultural communities in Canada but they were now no longer propaganda films. The Second World War was in the past and cinéma vérité was in vogue throughout the world. Filmmakers wanted to show life as it really was: raw, gritty and dramatic. At the NFB the filmmakers of the era were making more personal films on the cultural communities. It was no longer important to make a didactic film. Realism is what counted. The filmmakers could really get close to their subjects and the people of these cultural communities would be allowed to speak about their experiences, up to a point. We sense that the filmmakers (who are Francophone or Anglophone and not members of the cultural community) want to interpret for us what is being presented. The linking device is a narrator who is still somewhat detached from his subjects but serves to fill in important information about the communities. It is no longer the “voice of God” narrator of the past but a sympathetic voice, often someone with an accent who is supposed to represent a member of the community. This narrator imparts information on the community but is not himself a member of this community but an actor or voice-over person who still reflects the views of the director.

The resulting films offer an intriguing look at the various communities across Canada. The filmmaker obviously respects his subjects and is genuinely interested in what they have to say but still feels he must interpret and explain some of the information passed on to us. The national unity message of the earlier era is gone, replaced by a more sympathetic look at the immigrant and his/her cultural community in Canada.

In 1962, NFB pioneer Colin Low made the film The Hutterites, an excellent example of this cinéma vérité style of filmmaking of the era. Working with only a camera man and sound man, they lived in the community for several weeks and set about to shed light on the little known Hutterite community of Alberta. He speaks about his experiences making the film.

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