John Grierson Movies

In this delightful fantasy adventure, a mild-mannered writer of adventure stories for girls finds himself presented with an intriguing proposition...

At Balloch Moss mine in Scotland, water comes through a seam bringing a torrent of mud into the mine and flooding the pit shaft, resulting in 118 men...

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

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 boy pursues his ambition to be a jockey

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

Drama-documentary, reconstructing a real incident in which a trawler got into difficulties in a North Sea storm. Released 7th March 1938.

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

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

When Canada entered World War II, the National Film Board suddenly had an urgent new mission—and hundreds of women stepped forward, helping to...

Part of BFI collection "Police and Thieves."

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

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

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

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

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

The history of Scotland and the factors that have shaped the character of its people.

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

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