John Grierson Movies

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

An impressionistic portrait of the BBC.

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

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

The life and work of the documentary pioneer.

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...

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

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

A boy pursues his ambition to be a jockey

Documentary about shipbuilding on the Clyde. In 1960, Glasgow and other towns and ports on the River Clyde, on the west coast of Scotland, were still...

Part of BFI collection "Police and Thieves."

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 film made by the British General Post Office (GPO) in 1933, promoting the automation of telephone exchanges.

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

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

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

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

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...

A BFI-produced documentary about documentary filmmaker John Grierson speaking about documentary.

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