15-film series Mental Mechanisms. To this point, films about mental illness had used actors to re-create situations. Anderson used actual patients, in real clinics, with real doctors. The films had a startling effect. Anderson recalled that, when his film The Feeling of Rejection was shown at the 1947 annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in New York, “there was absolute bedlam…. They were shouting that no one should be shown this film unless at least one highly qualified psychiatrist was present to deal with the anxiety that it would provoke.’’ The public wanted these films; they were shown in theatres, and community organizations used them to encourage the opening of mental health clinics. And there was interest in the subject within the American government. At this time, the outgoing Chief of Information at the National Institute of Mental Health was Alberta Jacoby. She was married to the film producer Irving A. Jacoby, and they wanted to form something akin to the NFB and make films on mental illness. In 1948, they asked Anderson to move to New York and head up their new Mental Health Film Board. Anderson took a leave of absence from the NFB and moved to New York. Alberta Jacoby had a stable of filmmakers who had already made some films on mental illness; they brought their films to Anderson, who recalled: “Almost all of them, in bringing their films to me said “You have to remember, it’s what the sponsor wanted.” Well, that was an admission of consequence. Unless the film maker is responsible enough to control the content of the film, it is probably not a good film.” Anderson began to assemble his own team, but McCarthyism was rife and people in Washington claimed that Anderson’s filmmakers were communists. Frustrated, Anderson returned to Canada and continued with the Mental Mechanisms series. The United States Ban of Drug Addict In 1947, with the assistance of Health and Welfare Canada and R.C.M.P. Commissioner Leonard Nicholson, Anderson made the 34-minute film Drug Addict, which was intended as a training film for law enforcement and medical professionals. For research, he followed Vancouver-area R.C.M.P., watching them kick in doors, arrest dealers and burn a poppy field. He shot most of the film in New York, in Harlem, Chinatown and the port shipyards. He finished shooting in Montreal, using street addicts as actors. Drug Addict depicted themes that, for some,