... But no one else had such an influence as John Grierson. And more than any other person, John Grierson, was responsible for the documentary film as it has developed in English-speaking countries. In this paper I will tell a brief history of John Grierson and his influence on documentary film.
John Grierson was born in 1898 in Scotland, the son of the headmaster of a village school. ... While in the United States in the 1920s, Grierson first applied the term documentary to Robert Flahertys Moana. (1)
In 1928, John Grierson returned to England, where he joined the Empire Marketing Board and organized the Empire Marketing Board Film Unit, first as director and later as producer. ... While with the Empire Marketing Board, Grierson personally directed Drifters, a film about the North Sea herring fishermen, which laid the foundation for documentary film in Britain. ... For the next 10 years Grierson dominated it. ... When the Empire Marketing Board was dissolved in 1934, the Post Office took over the running of the film unit and Grierson became head of the new G. ... (2)
On the invitation of the Canadian Government, John Grierson came to Canada in 1938 to survey and report on film work and possibilities in this country, and helped to draft the National Film Act of 1939. ... Within six years of accepting to head the National Film Board, Grierson had amassed a team of more than 800 film-makers, including such notables as Stuart Legg, Norman McLaren and Tom Daly.
In 1945, Grierson stepped down from the NFB to take on the job of Director of UNESCOs Mass Communications (1946-1948) in Paris. ... Then, in 1951, together with John Baxter, he took charge of the National Film Finance Corporations Group 3, designed to develop the talents of young feature film-makers and actors. ... Grierson turned to television in 1957, conducting for many years his own program This Wonderful World for Scottish television. Grierson died on February 19, 1972, in Bath, England at the age of 73.
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