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.

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

The life and work of the documentary pioneer.

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

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

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

Marionette parody of Buster Keaton.

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

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...

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

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

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...

In this parody of Sherlock Holmes, the Great Detective goes to an opium den of inequity in the dangerous London district of London and challenges...

Part of BFI collection "Police and Thieves."

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...

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...

A boy pursues his ambition to be a jockey

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 short GPO documentary showing how undersea telephone cables are repaired.