present a ion joe shrimpton 25

8/14/2019 Present a Ion Joe Shrimpton 25

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By Joe Shrimpton and

Saskia Adams



What is it? It began in 1926 and ended in 1946.

It is a movement which was set up by a person called ‘John Grierson’, who became the head of thegroup with a number of different young filmmakers.

There work consisted of the movement by producing films but succeeded in blending propaganda,information, and education with a more poetic approach to documentary film making.

It was mainly funded by the government for the group (movement) to produce there filmdocumentaries, this was because the movement contained educational values.

The movement consists of various codes and conventions, the films which have been made all targetthe working or social class and portray them and make them seem less invisible.

The movement is best understood as a social democratic and reformist in relation to the documentconservatism of the inter war period, but not as occupying any explicitly socialist position.

However very few publications of the movement have appeared since 1990. Many of the film makers

from the movement so the sources for the movement are now reduced.

The Group remained at the EMB Film Unit, after they moved to the Post Office where they werereestablished as the GPO film unit.



Representations of Britishness…

This particular movement has lots of representations of britishness as the main concept andconvention which occurs within it is the social aspect.

The social aspect is very important to the movement as lots of there documentary films show theway in which what is been shown on screen showing normal day to day life around ordinary people.

The films follow traditional British stereotype reflections as they are all mainly to do with howBritain used to be, for example Coal Face reflects the mining industry etc.

Looking at the British aspects the movement also follows the stereotype of the working class wholive in Britain. The clothes they wear are shabby and dirty, they look un-healthy but happy in theresurroundings.

The British documentary movement was enormously influential in stimulating what became a strandof fiction film described as social realism.



John Grierson John Grierson was the person who founded the British Documentary Movement.

He was born on the 26th April 1898 and died on the 19th February 1972.

He is often considered to be the farther of British and Canadian documentary film.

He went to university and studied propaganda along with documentary style films, hestudied in the UK and also went to Canada to study further into his studies.

He only ever directed one film which was called ‘Drifters’ (1929) which stands as one ofthe most major achievements in British Cinema today because of the complex theory.

His approach to film making has positioned a ‘realist’ as one of the fundamental tenthsof what is often identified as British Cinema.

He was strongly influenced by forms of non-Hegelian philosophy which placedconsiderable importance on the value of the state and corporate institutions.

He believed the institutions of States achieve social integration and harmony.



Movement Members

Alberto Cavalcanti

1897-1982

Harry Watt

1906-1987Basil Wright

1907-1987

Humphrey Jennings

1907-1950

Arthur Elton

1906-1973

Edgar Anstey

1907-1987

Robert Flaherty

1884-1951



Films from the MovementIndustrial Britain

35mm, black and white, 22 minsDirector Robert Flaherty

Production Company Empire Marketing Board Film Unit

Produced by John Grierson Robert Flaherty

Photography Robert Flaherty

Coal Face

35mm, black and white, 12 minsDirector (uncredited) Alberto Cavalcanti

Production Company GPO Film Unit

Production John Grierson Verse (uncredited)W.H.

Auden Script (uncredited) Alberto Cavalcanti Montagu Slater

Music Benjamin Britten

Housing Problems

35mm, black and white, 13 mins

Production Arthur Elton E.H. Anstey

Production Compan yBritish Commercial Gas Association

Photography John Taylor

Recordist York Scarlett



Films from the Movement…Listen To Britain

35mm, black and white, 19 mins

Directors Humphrey Jennings Stewart McAllisterProduction Company Crown Film Unit

Sponsor MOI

ProducerIan Dalrymple

Photography H.E. Fowle

Song of Ceylon35mm, black and white, 37 mins

Directed by Basil Wright

Production Company GPO Film Unit

Sponsors Ceylon Tea Propaganda Bureau

ProducerJohn Grierson

Night Mail35mm, 24 min, black & white

Directors Harry Watt Basil Wright

Production CompanyGPO Film Unit

Produced by Basil Wright Harry Watt

Sound Direction Cavalcanti VerseW.H. Auden

Music Benjamin Britten



Night Mail

This was a production within the content ofthe movement as it was considered as aneducational value.

Educational roles play a key part within thisfilm documentary as it combines the use ofpoetic methods and music.

The camera work is very adventurousthroughout as it is about a train traveling fromLondon to Scotland looking at the variety oflabour involved in the fast pace filming etc.

Night mail is very creative like all the filmsfrom the movement however this has one

special aspect where the poetic methodfollows the pace of the train traveling alongthe train tracks following the social sequenceinvolved in the working class along the train asit travels.



Influences Beyond the UK…

Grierson had initially been approached by the Canadian HighCommission in London with a request to create a report ondeveloping government film-making in Canada.

In Canada Grierson created a model of film making which wasdrawn from the compilation film which had first been used in1930 in the documentary movement in the film Conquest .

The movement influenced others outside the UK using thesocial realistic aspect looking at people in there day to daylives.

Not only did they look at the way people lived, it influencedothers outside the UK by the educational values by showingpeople what things are like in your own surroundings lookingat the non fiction aspect, giving the viewers an in sight of thereal world.

This movement has been so important on the world ofdocumentary as it creates to the contribution of non fictionand actual meaning.



Useful Resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Cinema - This is useful for looking up

the general term but lacks information.

http://www.cineaste.com/articles/the-british-doumentary-movement-on-dvd

- This is very good as there is lots of detail on the history of the people

who make the group.

The British Cinema Book Second Edition – This is very useful with a detailed

over view from start to finish of the movement.

Amazon (British Documentary Movement) – This is a good resource giving

some good over views and summaries of the book and the movement itself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Cinema



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Cinema

present a ion joe shrimpton 25

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