Like many social critics of the time, Grierson was profoundly concerned about what he perceived to be clear threats to democracy. "Prospect for Documentary," in Grierson Awards are presented annually in nine categories: The Canadian Film Awards had presented a Grierson Award for "an outstanding contribution to Canadian cinema in the spirit of John Grierson. This answer has been confirmed as correct and helpful. The Smoke Menace f. Grierson also respected the sweeping epics Hollywood was making and he dreamed about the possibilities of harnessing the power and emotion of screen drama for the public good. John Grierson was born in Deanston (near Stirling), Scotland, on April 26, 1898. John Grierson resigned in 1945 and was replaced by his deputy, Ross McLean, who faced considerable difficulties in the postwar years. (Cavalcanti) (pr, ph); MacGann, R.D., "Subsidy for the Screen: Grierson and Group John Grierson, prior to becoming what he is known today as the father of documentary, was a political activist, a social critic, and a person that could easily be swayed to do something when he has seen something done the wrong way. Grierson's idea was to mobilize the cinema in the service of communication, in the service of building bridges between masses of people and their government, between the masses of people and democratic institutions. that Grierson is most to be valued. British actor, director, writer, and composer, British actor, director, writer, and producer. 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." Grierson Movement," in (London), October/December 1951. Quarterly of Film, Radio, Television Grierson was a firebrand whose single-minded devotion to the principle that "all things are beautiful, as long as you have them in the right order" had a profound influence on the history of film, and on the cultural life of Canada in particular. [2], During this time Grierson had been diagnosed with tuberculosis in May 1953, he spent a fortnight in hospital and then had a year of convalescing at his home, Tog Hill in Calstone. lines, expressed some of these concerns. Auden, composer Benjamin Britten and sound designer Alberto Cavalcanti to bring a creative treatment to the actuality of mail delivery. His His ancestors were lighthouse keepers and his father was a school teacher. The direct interview remains a standard technique of television (co-pr); ). Grierson assisted in the formation of the National Film Board of Canada (1939), and during World War II he supervised information films for the Canadian government. [2] He left in 1950 due to financial restrictions on the documentaries that he wished to make. Grierson prepared a report and on his recommendation King created the National Film Board (NFB) in The University of Illinois Press is one of the leading publishers of humanities and social sciences journals in the country. John Grierson was born on 26 April 1898 in Kilmadock, Stirlingshire, Scotland, UK. Grierson's definition of documentary as "creative treatment of actuality" has gained some acceptance, though it presents philosophical questions about documentaries containing stagings and reenactments. Ordinary life could now be heard as well as seen. The 25-minute short experiments with sound design, and dynamic editing to produce an energetic audio-visual style that matches the energy of the dedicated postal workers aboard the Nightmail train. Founded in 1950, the University of Texas Press publishes over 90 books per year and 11 journals in a wide range of fields. [3] When the family moved, John had three elder sisters, Agnes, Janet, and Margaret, and a younger brother, Anthony. [2] On 23 June 1948, he accepted an honorary degree, an LL.D from the University of Glasgow. Tomaselli, K., "Grierson in South Africa: Culture, State, and Spectator In 1926, Grierson coined the term "documentary" in a review of Robert J. Flaherty 's Moana. The New Operator Sussex, in (Berkeley), Fall 1954. John Grierson was born in Deanston (near Stirling), Scotland, on April 26, 1898. Education: [2] Grierson returned to Britain but was invited back to Canada on 14 October 1938; he returned in November.[2]. As the war came to a close, Grierson grew weary of Canadian bureaucrats and resigned. read them. When he headed the film department of the British General Post Office Grierson enlisted poet W.H. "John Grierson," in (Evanston), Spring 1977. University). Cinema Journal publishes essays on a wide variety of subjects from (using) diverse methodological perspectives. [2] Grierson met with the Prime Minister, William Lyon Mackenzie King and also spoke with many important figures across Canada, they were all in agreement of the importance of film in reducing sectionalism and in promoting the relationship of Canada between home and abroad. (pr), The Face of Scotland You're Only Young Twice [2] Grierson proposed that the Film Board show how the German prisoners of war were being treated in Canada through a film. As a result, in 1947, the federal government restricted imports on a large number of goods. He returned to England in 1928, and the next year the Empire Marketing Board Film Unit sponsored his first and only personally directed film, Drifters (1929), a study of the lives of North Sea herring fishermen. South Africa, all of which established national film boards. He served as an ordinary seaman in the First World War By 1937, the movement was spread across four different production units: GPO, Shell (headed by Anstey), Strand (headed by Rotha) and Realist (led by Wright). Grierson studied the pioneering work of Dziga Vertov (Kino Pravda 1922) who made reality-based Soviet propaganda films to stir mass support for the new communist order. In 1934, Grierson sailed on the Isabella Greig out of Granton to film Granton Trawler on Viking Bank which is between Shetland and the Norwegian coast. Spring on the Farm "The Challenge of Peace," reprinted in of film back to Britain with him in 1927. He was at the same time general manager of Canada's Wartime Information Board and thus had extraordinary control over how Canadians perceived the war. And we did."). [2] He had recovered enough to attend the Cannes Film Festival in April 1954, taking the production of Man of Africa. , vol. [2] Grierson was asked to keep his dual role until January 1944, however, he resigned in 1943 as the job he had been asked to complete had been finished as far as he was concerned. According to popular myth, in the course of this writing stint, Grierson coined the term "documentary" in writing about Robert J. Flaherty's film Moana (1926): "Of course Moana, being a visual account of events in the daily life of a Polynesian youth and his family, has documentary value."[7]. My earliest memories were of helping soup kitchens to keep the strikers going. (Wright) (pr), BBC: Droitwich (pr); Children at School lieutenants, went on a six-month missionary expedition to the United Film and Reform: John Grierson and the Documentary John Grierson was especially interested in the power of film to reveal the issues plaguing society and to provoke social change. (London), October 1980. Filmography as producer/creative contributor: The Grierson Documentary Film Awards were established in 1972 to commemorate John Grierson and It was Flahertys 1926 docufiction film Moana about Samoan culture that prompted Grierson to coin the term. 3, 1988. [2], On 7 January 1916, Grierson was sent to the wireless telegraphy station at Aultbea, Cromarty, as an ordinary telegraphist but was promoted to telegraphist on 2 June 1916. As a producer he was responsible to one extent or Grierson's crew were charged with demonstrating how the Post Office facilitated modern communication and brought the nation together, a task aimed as much at GPO workers as the general public. His view of Hollywood movie-making was considerably less sanguine: Grierson's emerging and outspoken film philosophies caught the attention of New York film critics at the time. EMB dissolved and its Film unit transferred to GPO, 1933; resigned from (pr); John grierson made large epic films . (Wright) (pr); , Toronto, 1988. (exec pr); Journal of Film and Video Line Cruising South In Hollywood to study film, he befriended the American filmmaker Robert Flaherty, whose haunting film Nanook of the North celebrated the daily survival of an Inuit hunter. He began as a curiosity but soon was attracting up to 800 students to his lectures. 0 Answers/Comments. Following its success, Grierson established, with the full support of The choice of topic was chosen less from Grierson's curiosity than the fact that he discovered that the Financial Secretary had made the herring industry his hobbyhorse. May 1939 and appointed Grierson its first commissioner in October 1939. Married Margaret Taylor, 1930. interest for a wider public. Cinema Journal On a Rockefeller scholarship to the University of Chicago, Grierson began his lifelong study of the influence of media on public opinion. Basil Wright and Harry Watt, 1936) and Coal Face (dir. In Grierson's view, the focus of film should be on the everyday drama of ordinary people. Hardy, Forsyth, "Making of His ancestors were lighthouse keepers and his father was a school teacher. Claiming the Real: The Griersonian Documentary (Wright) (pr); Awards: [2] In the seventeenth century wild sand had blown into the mouth and covered the land, the successful replanting of the forest was a great success for the commission. Basil Wright, Arthur Elton, Edgar Anstey, and Paul Rotha were He was a respected commentator, writer of film criticism and researcher interested in how media influenced public opinion. (pr), Calender of the Year Scottish. We will write a custom Essay on John Grierson: 'The Father of the Documentary' specifically for you "Grierson on Documentary: Last Interview," with Elizabeth (Evanston, Illinois), Fall 1968. nation and of the world) the information and attitudes that he thought Interweaving archival footage, interviews with people who knew him and footage of Grierson himself, this film is a sensitive and informative portrait of a dynamic man of vision. first phase in Grierson's lifelong activity on behalf of Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. "The Front Page," in Taylor pointed out that they did make full use of the large studio facilities Crown had "One Hundred Percent Cinema," in Our publication program covers a wide range of disciplines including psychology, philosophy, Black studies, women's studies, cultural studies, music, immigration, and more. (pr), BBC: The Voice of Britain John Grierson, (born April 26, 1898, Kilmadock, Stirlingshire, Scot.died Feb. 19, 1972, Bath, Somerset, Eng. Housing Problems pushed the boundaries of actuality filmmaking by anticipating 1950s cinema verite on-screen interviews and voice overs and TV formats still with us today commentary, stock footage, miniatures and actuality footage. John Grierson CBE (26 April 1898 - 19 February 1972) was a pioneering Scottish documentary maker, often considered the father of British and Canadian documentary film. John Grierson: Life, Contributions, Influence It was during this time that Grierson developed a conviction that motion pictures could play a central role in promoting this process. Grierson, meanwhile, carried his ideas 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. 3, no. 192427; joined Empire Marketing Board (EMB) Film Unit under = 2 1/4. THE MEMORY PROJECTThe website for The Memory Project, a major initiative dedicated to recording and preserving Canadian veterans' first-hand accounts of their military service during the Second World War and Korean War. are currently supervised by The Grierson Trust. John C. Ellis, John Grierson: Life, Contributions, Influence (2000); H. Forsyth Hardy, John Grierson: A Documentary Biography (1979) and ed, Grierson on Documentary (1946); Gary Evans, John Grierson and the National Film Board (1984); Ian Aitken, Film and Reform: John Grierson and the Documentary Film Movement (1990). (Wright) (pr), The Londoners Sussex, Elizabeth, "John Grierson," in [2] Group 3 was to have continuous production from 1951 until 1955 when it stopped producing films, the organisation had made a loss of over 400,000 as production of the films usually ran over the time allocated, and there had also been difficulty getting the films shown in cinemas. documentary the use of film by governments in communicating with their citizens. (Montreal), May 1972. while Grierson was in the United States in the 1920s. [2], The first programme of This Wonderful World was aired on 11 October 1957 in Scotland; it was on The Culbin Sands which focused on how the Forestry Commission had replanted six thousand acres of woodland along the mouth of Findhorn. co-teacher with Grierson. Sight and Sound [2] He had the idea for the Unesco Courier which was published in several languages across the world, first as a tabloid and later as a magazine. Film The Young Grierson in America, 1924-1927 Jack C. Ellis An important few of the formative years of John Grierson, the Scot who would inspire and lead Britain into a documentary film movement, were spent in the United States. (pr); ), slums ( 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. (New York), January/February 1977. Sick with cancer, he returned home to England, where he died at Bath. The Documentary Idea filmmakers who comprised the British documentary movement made over three attention to pressing problems faced by the nation, insistence that these In the panic of suspicion surrounding the infamous Gouzenko spy case in Canada, Grierson was brought before a secret , a monthly series for the theaters along This is reflected in his first documentary, Drifters.[/caption]. [2] Grierson was appointed the first Commissioner of the National Film Board in October 1939. https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Grierson, Turner Classic Movies - Biography of John Grierson, University of Glasgow - Biography of John Grierson, Undiscovered Scotland - Biography of John Grierson, The Canadian Encyclopedia - Biography of John Grierson, John Grierson - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). Lovell, Alan, and Jim Hillier, Request Permissions, Journal of the University Film Association, Published By: University of Illinois Press. Education & Study Guides. are shown to people in the other parts, and if a government service is "The Prospect for Cultural Cinema," in Politics of Wartime Propaganda Yet they incorporated In Night Mail, Audens words appear to be running alongside the mail train steaming across the British countryside Past cotton grass and moorland boulders / shoveling white steam over her shoulder. Born: Man of Africa 60, July 1991. October 7, 2022. "Dramatising Housing Needs and City Planning," in (London), March 1982. lives. [2] On 23 January 1917, he became a telegraphist on the minesweeper H.M.S Surf and served there until 13 October 1917. A large part of its innovation lies in the fierce boldness in bringing the camera to rugged locations such as a small boat in the middle of a gale while leaving relatively less of the action staged. (exec pr), Seawards the Great Ships Song of Ceylon Expert answered|Jerrald@22|Points 14385| Log in for more information. Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand Governments, 193740; Film [2] John and Anthony were enrolled at Cambusbarron school in November 1903. (London), October 1954. Travelled to United States to study press, cinema, and other mass media, John Grierson's 'minor manifesto of beliefs', 'First principles of documentary' (1932-34), is one such text, 2 a short work that John Corner describes as the foundational text of documentary theory. Forsyth, S., "The Failures of Nationalism and Democracy: Grierson Griersons project boiled down to this: for a social democracy to work you need informed citizens to make informed choices. (pr); (Watt and Wright) (pr, co-sc); Sight and Sound Indira Gandhi called him to India to find ways to spread the principles of birth control He remained on the National Film Board and managed to complete his duties to Wartime Information Board as well through his deputies that aided him in the task. "Post-War Patterns," in Film Movement , is one of them. (London), Spring 1972. 1, Spring 1994. [2] Grierson decided to give up smoking and drinking to benefit his health. Phase two, which began in the mid-1930s, consisted of calling public [2] He also pushed for a French unit in the National Film Board. Enter John Grierson. and Its Legitimations The Documentary Film Movement is the group of British filmmakers, led by John Grierson, who were influential in British film culture in the 1930s and 1940s. 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