Drifters **** (1929, director John Grierson) – Classic Movie Review 12,104

John Grierson (right) in 1955.

‘The herring fishing has changed. It was once an idyll of brown sails and village harbours – its story now is an epic of steam and steel.’

Writer-producer-director John Grierson’s 1929 silent film Drifters for the Empire Marketing Board is a groundbreaking, essential British documentary about the hazardous exploits of Britain’s North Sea fishing fleet as herring fishermen in a coastal village head out to sea and bring their haul back to land to sell it.

Working under difficult conditions here, director-editor Grierson brought a wave of realism to British films.

Despite all that has happened in film since 1929, this is still an exciting, pioneering, impressive piece of work in itself and also notable historically in that it helped to start Grierson’s documentary film movement.

Drifters (1929, director John Grierson).

Drifters is shot by director of photography Basil Emmott.

It runs 49 minutes.

It is available on VHS and DVD. Panamint Cinema [UK] released it on VHS with new musical accompaniment in 2001. BFI Video (UK) released it on DVD in 2012.

Pioneering Scottish documentary maker John Grierson CBE (26 April 1898 – 19 February 1972) is the father of British and Canadian documentary film. He coined the term ‘documentary’ in a 1926 review of Robert J Flaherty’s Moana.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,104

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com