John Grierson Movies

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...

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

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.

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

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...

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

A look at the work of Glasgow's Medical Officer of Health.

Norman McLaren was a cinematic genius who made films without cameras, and music without instruments. He produced sixty films in a stunning range of...

A record of an educational experiment in the small town of Chesterfield in Derbyshire.

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

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 about British education in the late 1930s.

A Cockney lad trains to be a messenger boy.

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

Humphrey Jennings' first film as a director, a brief overview of the British postal service.

The life and work of the documentary pioneer.

An impressionistic portrait of the BBC.

Part of BFI collection "Police and Thieves."