John Grierson

John Grierson (April 26, 1898 - February 19 1972) is often considered the father of modern documentary film.

Filmmaker

Grierson returned to Great Britain in the early 1930s armed with the sense that film could be enlisted to deal with the problems of the Great Depression, and to build national morale and national consensus. Filmmaking for Grierson was an exhaulted calling; he Filmmaker a patriot. In all of this there was more than a little elitism, a stance reflected in Grierson's many dictims of the time: "The elect have their duty." "I look on cinema as a pulpit, and use it as a propagandist."

Related Topics:
Great Britain - 1930s - Great Depression

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In the US Grierson had met pioneering documentary filmmaker Robert Flaherty. Grierson respected Flaherty immensely for his contributions to documentary form and his attempts to use the camera to bring alive the lives of everyday people and everyday events. Less commendable in Grierson's view was Flaherty's focus on exotic and faraway cultures. ("In the profounder kind of way," wrote Grierson of Flaherty, "we live and prosper each of us by denouncing the other"). In Grierson's view, the focus of film should be on the everyday drama of ordinary people. As Grierson wrote in his diaries: "Beware the ends of the earth and the exotic: the drama is on your doorstep wherever the slums; are, wherever there is malnutrition, wherever there is exploitation and cruelty." "You keep your savages in the far place Bob; we are going after the savages of Birmingham,' I think I said to him pretty early on. And we did.")

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On his return to England, Grierson joined the Empire Marketing Board (EMB), a governmental agency which had been established several years earlier to promote British world trade and British unity throughout the empire. One of the major functions of the EMB was publicity, which the Board accomplished thru exhibits, posters, and publications. In 1930 Grierson convinced government funding agencies to establish a film unit within the EMB and to assign him the directorship of the unit. It was within the context of this State funded organization that the "documentary" as we know it today really got its start.

Related Topics:
England - Empire Marketing Board - Empire - 1930

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In late 1929 Grierson and his cameraman, Basil Emmott, completed his first film, "The Drifters", which he wrote, produced and directed. The film, which follows the heroic work of North Sea herring fishermen, was a radical departure from anything being made by the British film industry or Hollywood. It premiered in London on a double-bill with Eisenstein's then controversial film "Battleship Potemkin," and received high praise from both its sponsors and the press.

Related Topics:
1929 - Basil Emmott - North Sea - Herring - Fishermen - Battleship Potemkin

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After this success, Grierson moved away from film direction into more production and administration within the EMB. He became a tireless organizer and recruiter for the EMB, enlisting a stable of energetic young filmmakers into the film unit between 1930 and 1933. Those enlisted included filmmakers Basil Wright, Edgar Anstey, Stuart Legg, Paul Rotha, Arthur Elton, Humphrey Jennings, Harry Watt, and Alberto Cavalcanti. This group formed the core of what was to become known as The British Documentary Movement.

Related Topics:
1933 - Basil Wright - Edgar Anstey - Stuart Legg - Paul Rotha - Arthur Elton - Humphrey Jennings - Harry Watt - Alberto Cavalcanti - The British Documentary Movement

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In 1933 the EMB Film Unit was disbanded, a casualty of Depression era economics. Grierson's boss at the EMB moved to the General Post Office (GPO) as its first public relations officer with the stipulation that he could bring the EMB film unit with him. Grierson's crew were charged with demonstrating the ways in which the Post Office facilitated modern communication and brought the nation together, a task aimed as much at GPO workers as the general public. During Grierson's administration, the GPO film unit produced a series of groundbreaking films, including "Night Mail" (dir. Basil Wright and Harry Watt, 1936), and "Coal Face" (dir. Alberto Cavalcanti, 1936).

Related Topics:
1933 - General Post Office - GPO film unit - 1936

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Grierson eventually grew restless with having to work within the bureaucratic and budgetary confines of government sponsorship. In response, he sought out private industry sponsorship for film production. He was finally successful in getting the British gas industry to underwrite an annual film program. Perhaps the most significant works produced during this time were "Housing Problems" (dir. Arthur Elton, Edgar Anstey, John Taylor, and Grierson's sister Ruby Grierson, 1935) and "Song of Ceylon" (dir. Basil Wright, 1935)

Related Topics:
Ruby Grierson - 1935

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In 1938, Grierson was invited by the Canadian government to study the country's film production. He proposed the government create a national coordinating body for the production of films. In 1939, Canada created the National Film Commission, which would later become the National Film Board of Canada. Grierson was the first Commissioner of the Board. When Canada entered World War II in 1939, the NFB focused on the production of propaganda films, many of which Grierson directed. After the war, it focused on producing documentaries that reflected the lives of Canadians. The NFB is recognized around the world for producing quality films, many of which have won Academy Awards.

Related Topics:
1938 - Canadian government - 1939 - National Film Board of Canada - World War II - Propaganda - Academy Awards

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From 1957 to 1967 Grierson hosted a successful weekly television program on Scottish tv, "This Wonderful World", which showed excerpts from outstanding documentaries.

Related Topics:
1957 - 1967 - Scottish - Tv - This Wonderful World

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In 1957 he received a special Canadian Film Award.

Related Topics:
1957 - Canadian Film Award

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