Making Movie History: Pierre Juneau

One of the overlooked giants of Canadian film and broadcasting, Pierre Juneau played a key role in NFB history and in ensuring the place of the francophones within the agency. He arrived in 1949, having been involved in film clubs through a Catholic youth group. By 1954, at the age of 32, he was Assistant Regional Supervisor and official French Advisor. He was instrumental in the decision to relocate NFB headquarters to Montreal in 1956, a move that played a vital role in the evolution of Quebec cinema. When a fully independent French program was established in 1964, Juneau was appointed its first director. In 1968, he was appointed President of the Bureau of Broadcast Governors, later renamed the CRTC, and in 1982 he became President of the CBC, Canada's public broadcaster. He is remembered as one of Canadian culture's great public servants.