A work in constant progress (and occasional regress).
Alias:
约翰·格里尔逊
Birthplace:
Kilmadock, Stirlingshire, Scotland, UK
Born:
April 26, 1898
Died:
February 19, 1972
John Grierson (1898–1972) was a pioneering Scottish filmmaker and producer who shaped the documentary film movement, earning recognition as the father of British and Canadian documentary cinema. He famously coined the term "documentary" in 1926 and championed the idea that film should serve as a tool for social education and reform. As the driving force behind the British documentary movement, he founded the GPO Film Unit, which produced groundbreaking works like Night Mail (1936), and later played a key role in establishing the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) in 1939, turning it into one of the world's most influential documentary institutions. Grierson’s vision and advocacy for documentary as a vehicle for public service and civic engagement left a lasting legacy on global nonfiction filmmaking.
Associate Producer:
1965 Health of a City
Director:
1929 Drifters
1930 Herlock Sholmes in Be-a-Live-Crook
1930 Kerri Cheertum in Jungle-Tungle
1930 Kuster Beaton
1930 Our Dumb Friend
1930 Tom Mixup
1934 Granton Trawler
1935 On the Fishing Banks of Skye
1965 Health of a City
Director of Photography:
1929 Drifters
1930 Herlock Sholmes in Be-a-Live-Crook
1930 Kerri Cheertum in Jungle-Tungle
1930 Kuster Beaton
1930 Our Dumb Friend
1930 Tom Mixup
1934 Granton Trawler
1935 On the Fishing Banks of Skye
1965 Health of a City
Editor:
1929 Drifters
1930 Herlock Sholmes in Be-a-Live-Crook
1930 Kerri Cheertum in Jungle-Tungle
1930 Kuster Beaton
1930 Our Dumb Friend
1930 Tom Mixup
1934 Granton Trawler
1935 On the Fishing Banks of Skye
1965 Health of a City
Executive Producer:
1929 Drifters
1930 Herlock Sholmes in Be-a-Live-Crook
1930 Kerri Cheertum in Jungle-Tungle
1930 Kuster Beaton
1930 Our Dumb Friend
1930 Tom Mixup
1934 Granton Trawler
1935 On the Fishing Banks of Skye
1938 North Sea
1952 Miss Robin Hood
1952 The Brave Don't Cry
1965 Health of a City
Producer:
1929 Drifters
1930 Conquest
1930 Herlock Sholmes in Be-a-Live-Crook
1930 Kerri Cheertum in Jungle-Tungle
1930 Kuster Beaton
1930 Our Dumb Friend
1930 Tom Mixup
1931 Industrial Britain
1932 O'er Hill and Dale
1932 The New Generation
1932 Upstream
1933 Cable Ship
1933 Spring on the Farm
1933 The Coming of the Dial
1934 6.30 Collection
1934 Granton Trawler
1934 Post-Haste
1934 The Song of Ceylon
1934 Weather Forecast
1935 A Colour Box
1935 BBC: The Voice of Britain
1935 Coal Face
1935 Droitwich: The World's Most Modern Long Wave Transmitter
1935 On the Fishing Banks of Skye
1937 A Job in a Million
1937 Children at School
1937 Daily Round
1937 The Smoke Menace
1937 Trade Tattoo
1938 North Sea
1950 Four Men in Prison
1951 You're Only Young Twice
1952 Miss Robin Hood
1952 The Brave Don't Cry
1953 Man of Africa
1954 Devil on Horseback
1965 Health of a City
Screenplay:
1929 Drifters
1930 Conquest
1930 Herlock Sholmes in Be-a-Live-Crook
1930 Kerri Cheertum in Jungle-Tungle
1930 Kuster Beaton
1930 Our Dumb Friend
1930 Tom Mixup
1931 Industrial Britain
1932 O'er Hill and Dale
1932 The New Generation
1932 Upstream
1933 Cable Ship
1933 Spring on the Farm
1933 The Coming of the Dial
1934 6.30 Collection
1934 Granton Trawler
1934 Post-Haste
1934 The Song of Ceylon
1934 Weather Forecast
1935 A Colour Box
1935 BBC: The Voice of Britain
1935 Coal Face
1935 Droitwich: The World's Most Modern Long Wave Transmitter
1935 On the Fishing Banks of Skye
1937 A Job in a Million
1937 Children at School
1937 Daily Round
1937 The Smoke Menace
1937 Trade Tattoo
1938 North Sea
1950 Four Men in Prison
1951 You're Only Young Twice
1952 Miss Robin Hood
1952 The Brave Don't Cry
1953 Man of Africa
1954 Devil on Horseback
1960 Seawards the Great Ships
1965 Health of a City
Treatment:
1929 Drifters
1930 Conquest
1930 Herlock Sholmes in Be-a-Live-Crook
1930 Kerri Cheertum in Jungle-Tungle
1930 Kuster Beaton
1930 Our Dumb Friend
1930 Tom Mixup
1931 Industrial Britain
1932 O'er Hill and Dale
1932 The New Generation
1932 Upstream
1933 Cable Ship
1933 Spring on the Farm
1933 The Coming of the Dial
1934 6.30 Collection
1934 Granton Trawler
1934 Post-Haste
1934 The Song of Ceylon
1934 Weather Forecast
1935 A Colour Box
1935 BBC: The Voice of Britain
1935 Coal Face
1935 Droitwich: The World's Most Modern Long Wave Transmitter
1935 On the Fishing Banks of Skye
1937 A Job in a Million
1937 Children at School
1937 Daily Round
1937 The Smoke Menace
1937 Trade Tattoo
1938 North Sea
1950 Four Men in Prison
1951 You're Only Young Twice
1952 Miss Robin Hood
1952 The Brave Don't Cry
1953 Man of Africa
1954 Devil on Horseback
1960 Seawards the Great Ships
1962 Heart of Scotland
1965 Health of a City
Writer:
1929 Drifters
1930 Conquest
1930 Herlock Sholmes in Be-a-Live-Crook
1930 Kerri Cheertum in Jungle-Tungle
1930 Kuster Beaton
1930 Our Dumb Friend
1930 Tom Mixup
1931 Industrial Britain
1932 O'er Hill and Dale
1932 The New Generation
1932 Upstream
1933 Cable Ship
1933 Spring on the Farm
1933 The Coming of the Dial
1934 6.30 Collection
1934 Granton Trawler
1934 Post-Haste
1934 The Song of Ceylon
1934 Weather Forecast
1935 A Colour Box
1935 BBC: The Voice of Britain
1935 Coal Face
1935 Droitwich: The World's Most Modern Long Wave Transmitter
1935 On the Fishing Banks of Skye
1937 A Job in a Million
1937 Children at School
1937 Daily Round
1937 The Smoke Menace
1937 Trade Tattoo
1938 North Sea
1950 Four Men in Prison
1951 You're Only Young Twice
1952 Miss Robin Hood
1952 The Brave Don't Cry
1953 Man of Africa
1954 Devil on Horseback
1960 Seawards the Great Ships
1962 Heart of Scotland
1965 Health of a City
Most data and links to images for the Movies section come from TheMovieDB (TMDB).
Additional data for Film Titles come from The Open Movie Database (OMDb).
At least one plug-in comes from IMDb.
Data are -- hey, it's a plural -- subject to the limitations of their sources. (For example, TMDB search results currently max out at 20.) I am limiting myself to free data sources for now. (No, a "free trial" is not free.)
While much of the above data are retrieved directly from outside APIs and other such sources, data from American Film Institute (AFI) and British Film Institute (BFI) were manually entered the old fashioned way into a MySQL database. Re BFI I took the following liberties:
Regarding profile removals and data corrections:
Filtering is applied here to film projects flagged as "adult" by TheMovieDB. Pending "popular demand" I am contemplating a login and profile system with preferences (such as whether to allow adult images to appear) and permissions (such as data entry).
Whereas the overall purpose of this website is to serve as a personal demo/portfolio/workshop of web and data skills, this Movies section is not meant to compete with or substitute for far more definitive movie websites.
Whether or not he still clings to an award which he won in 1986 as a film critic for his college's newspaper, Jeffrey Hartmann is not responsible for the texts of overviews and biographies supplied by external data sources.