Quote:
"The Canadian Government Poverty Program, later titled Challenge for Change, was begun in 1966 as a cooperative effort of a number of government departments and agencies including the National Film Board. Film ideas for the program were discussed among the staff, but no action was taken until the Privy Council Office proposed sponsoring a film on urban poverty [...]. The film's purpose was to arouse public interest and concern for the problems of the urban poor. Originally intended as a thirty-minute production, it [The Things I Cannot Change] was expanded to an hour and given initial release on television."
-- C. Rodney James

Source:
James, C. Rodney. Film as a National Art: NFB of Canada and the Film Board Idea. New York: Arno Press, 1977. 'Originally presented as the author's thesis, Ohio State University, 1968, under title: The National Film Board of Canada, Its Task of Communication'. (pp. 190-191)