John Grierson Movies

Documentary following an Edinburgh fishing trawler, the "Isabella Grieg".

Grierson set out to make "propaganda," and this film--with it's voice-over proclaiming the great value of the British industrial worker, without a...

This documentary short examines the special train on which mail is sorted, dropped and collected on the run, and delivered in Scotland on the...

1935 documentary about the hard working life of Welsh coal miners.

Animated shapes dance to Cuban music. This was one of the first animations to be painted directly onto the film.

A silent film by John Grierson. It tells the story of Britain's North Sea herring fishery.

Short documentary about a trawler fishing for hake.

Filmed in Uganda, Man of Africa was assembled by legendary documentary producer John Grierson. The film depicts the mass migration of the Bakija and...

Short documentary showing the workings of a large London sorting office.

Part of BFI collection "Police and Thieves."

Seeking her long lost uncle, Ada Shore arrives at Skerryvore University to find him working under another name as the Gate Keeper. Ada is mistaken by...

Ambitious documentary chronicling the cultural life and religious customs of the Sinhalese and the effects of advanced industrialism on such customs.

A boy pursues his ambition to be a jockey

A short GPO documentary showing how undersea telephone cables are repaired.

The Brave Don't Cry aspires to the "feel" of a documentary, right down to the deliberate absence of background music. A mine in Scotland falls victim...

In this parody of Sherlock Holmes, the Great Detective goes to an opium den of inequity in the dangerous London district of London and challenges...

The life and work of the documentary pioneer.

An impressionistic portrait of the BBC.

Legendary film director Alfred Hitchcock pays tribute to the "father of the documentary", John Grierson, exploring what made his work so...

Marionette parody of Buster Keaton.