[1] It also produced early Canadian documentaries such as Lest We Forget (1935),[3] a compilation film (using newsreel footage with staged sequences) recounting Canada's role in the First World War, written, directed, and edited by Frank Badgley, the director of the Bureau from 1927 to 1941; and The Royal Visit (1939),[4] also co-written and edited by Badgley, which documented the 1939 royal tour of Canada by King George VI and his consort, Queen Elizabeth.
[1] Into the 1930s, the Bureau began to see a decline, as its films were bland and of poor quality; it lacked a national policy, it was falling behind Associated Screen News of Canada, technologically and in terms of distribution.
By this time, government ministries began producing their own promotional films, usually using outside contractors rather than relying on the CGMPB.
[2] In February 1936, a report written by Ross McLean, secretary of Vincent Massey, the Canadian High Commissioner in London, recommended an in-depth study of the government's production of promotional films and suggested the name of acclaimed British documentary filmmaker John Grierson.
The two agencies coexisted for nearly another two years until 1941, when this consolidation took place and the NFB finally absorbed the CGMPB.