to foster the outmoded image of "romance, glamour and intrigue" that characterized the westerner's perception of the East. The narrator in When Asia Speaks was Lorne Greene, known for his work on both radio broadcasts as a news announcer at CBC as well as narrating many of the earlier Canada Carries On and The World in Action series. His sonorous recitation led to his nickname, "The Voice of Canada", and when reading grim battle statistics, "The Voice of Doom". Reception When Asia Speaks as part of the NFB's The World in Action newsreel series, was produced in 35 mm for the theatrical market. Each film was shown over a six-month period as part of the shorts or newsreel segments in approximately 800 theatres across Canada. The NFB also had an arrangement with United Artists to ensure that newsreels would get a wider release in North America. After the six-month theatrical tour ended, individual films were made available on 16 mm, to schools, libraries, churches and factories, extending the life of these films for another year or two. They were also made available to film libraries operated by university and provincial authorities. Available from the National Film Board either online or as a DVD. Film historian Ian Aitken in The Concise Routledge Encyclopedia of the Documentary Film, described When Asia Speaks as "... so accurate and farseeing in its analysis that it was still in active non-theatrical distribution long after the war." See also Warclouds in the Pacific (1941) Inside Fighting China (1942) List of artistic depictions of Mahatma Gandhi References Notes Citations Bibliography Aitken, Ian. The Concise Routledge Encyclopedia of the Documentary Film. London: Routledge, 2013. . Bennett, Linda Greene. My Father's Voice: The Biography of Lorne Greene. Bloomington, Indiana: iUniverse, Inc., 2004. . Ellis, Jack C. and Betsy A. McLane. New History of Documentary Film. London: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005. . External links When Asia Speaks at NFB Collections page Watch When Asia Speaks at NFB Documentary page 1944 films Black-and-white documentary films 1944 documentary films English-language Canadian films National Film Board of Canada documentaries Canadian short documentary films Films produced by Stuart Legg Films scored by Lucio Agostini Documentary films about Asia The World in Action Quebec films National Film Board of Canada short films Columbia Pictures short films Canadian black-and-white films Cultural depictions of Mahatma Gandhi Cultural depictions of Jawaharlal Nehru Cultural depictions of Franklin D.