RESEARCH: John Grierson

 

One of the founding members of the British Documentary Movement, his work as a filmmaker and a campaigner had a critical influence over the development of the documentary as an art form, the development of other filmmakers, and the introduction of public service broadcasting. During his career he not only wrote, directed and produced a number of landmark films including '
Drifters' (1931) (see I Remember, I remember and Seawards the Great Ships  (1960), he also was instrumental in setting up The Empire Marketing Board Film Unit, The General Post Office (GPO) Film Unit, The Films of Scotland Committee and The Canadian Film Board.

Drifters 1931

John Grierson defined the term documentary as, 'creative treatment of actuality,' in 1926.

His relationship with Robert Flaherty:

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."