Film and Reform

John Grierson and the Documentary Film Movement

Ian Aitken

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780415726573
• eBook ISBN: 9781317929178
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Film & Video

Best known for his documentaries such as Drifters, North Sea, and Housing Problems, John Grierson was the most important figure in the British documentary film movement and one of the most influential of British film theorists.

This major assessment of Grierson and the documentary film movement examines the intellectual and aesthetic influences on his work, focusing on the material he produced in the inter-war years and comparing the idealistic strain of Grierson's social commentary with other social reformists such as the Next Five Years Group and writers like Orwell and Priestley. Underlining the link between film and reform, the book clarifies the meaning and significance of Grierson's ideas and the historical role of the documentary film movement. Originally published in 1990.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Title Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• General editor's preface
• Illustrations
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 John Grierson
• 2 John Grierson and the influence of American scientific naturalism 1924–7
• 3 Grierson's aesthetic 1924–7
• 4 John Grierson, the Empire Marketing Board Film Unit, and the documentary film movement 1927-33
• 5 The General Post Office Film Unit 1933–9
• 6 Public relations, propaganda and documentary film 1900–39
• 7 Documentary film and reform
• 8 The influence of idealism
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index