Grierson

Grierson

Grierson
| 57 min
Free
streaming

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DVD

This feature film is a portrait of John Grierson, the first Canadian Government Film Commissioner and founder of the National Film Board in 1939. Interweaving archival footage, interviews with people who knew him and footage of Grierson himself, this film is a sensitive and informative portrait of a dynamic man of vision.

Grierson believed that the filmmaker had a social responsibility, and that film could help a society realize democratic ideals. His absolute faith in the value of capturing the drama of everyday life was to influence generations of filmmakers all over the world. In fact, he coined the term "documentary film."

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Grierson, Roger Blais, provided by the National Film Board of Canada

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Credits
  • director
    Roger Blais
  • producer
    Roger Blais
  • executive producer
    David Bairstow
  • commentary
    Donald Brittain
  • photography
    Eugene Boyko
    Lewis McLeod
    Michel Thomas-d'Hoste
    Magi Torruella
    Jacques Fogel
  • animation camera
    Raymond Dumas
  • sound
    Bev Davidson
    Colin Charles
    Gildas LeSausse
    Ron Seltzer
    Hans Oomes
  • editing
    Les Halman
    John Kramer
    Annick de Bellefeuille
  • sound editing
    Bernard Bordeleau
    André Galbrand
  • re-recording
    Jean-Pierre Joutel
  • narrator
    Michael Kane
  • advisor
    James Beveridge
 See also
Film and Video Arts
All subjects
Featured Films
National Canadian Film Day
All channels
Add a new comment
  • Iain McLeod

    My dad, Lewis McLeod, was the cameraman on this film. He was a huge admirer of Grierson and the huge impact he had on film-making.

    Iain McLeod, 29 Mar 2020
  • Chapula

    This wonderful documentary brought me back to my early years at university where I had become a member of a film society and was very much influenced by these first films of the NFB and am so delighted to return to them after seeing this doc.by Roger Blais.

    Chapula, 18 Jan 2012
  • gngcreative

    I watched "This Wonderful World" avidly on Scottish television when I was a child, but had never known the breadth or depth of John Grierson beyond the little television screen where he kept me enthralled, week after week, with fascinating glimpses at the rest of the world. The famous clip of ibex leaping to safety from cliff to cliff is one I have never forgotten, and I was pleased, if not entirely surprised, that it gets an explicit mention in this documentary, itself a fitting tribute to the originator of the documentary.

    gngcreative, 12 Dec 2011

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