Drifters (1929 film)

1929 British film by John Grierson

Drifters

Directed by| John Grierson
Produced by| John Grierson
Cinematography| DOP Basil Emmott

Release date

* 1929 (1929)

Running time

| 61 minutes
Country| United Kingdom
Language| English
Budget| £3,000

Drifters is a 1929 silent documentary film by John Grierson, his first and only "personal" film.

It tells the story of Britain's North Sea herring fishery. The film's style has been described as being a "response to avant-garde, Modernist films, adopting formal techniques such as montage – constructive editing emphasising the rhythmic juxtaposition of images – but also aimed to make a socially directed commentary on its subject" (Tate Gallery: Liverpool 2006). The film was successful both critically and commercially and helped kick off Grierson's documentary film movement.[1][2][3][4] This film also showed that Grierson was not afraid to alter reality slightly in order to have his vision shown. For example, when the boat he was on returned without a catch he bought another boat's catch and tried to fake it. He ended up scrapping that film as it was not authentic enough.[5]

## Release

[edit]

The film was shown alongside Battleship Potemkin's premiere in London.[6]

## See also

[edit]

* Music for Drifters

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "John Grierson : 1898 - 1972" (PDF). Griersontrust.org. Retrieved 6 July 2017.
2. ^ "DRIFTERS (John Grierson, 1929) | Dennis Grunes". Grunes.wordpress.com. 11 September 2007. Retrieved 6 July 2017.
3. ^ "Tate Liverpool | Past Exhibitions | Making History". www.tate.org.uk. Archived from the original on 5 May 2007. Retrieved 27 January 2022.
4. ^ "Montage Film Reviews - Written Reviews Section: 'Drifters' 1929 (Dir. John Grierson) "Dramatising the Mundane: The Working Man Hero in John Grierson's 'Drifters' "". Archived from the original on 27 March 2012. Retrieved 19 July 2011.
5. ^ Evans, Gary. John Grierson: Trailblazer of Documentary Film. Montreal: XYZ Publishing, 2005. Print.
6. ^ Khouri 2007, p. 90.

## Works cited

[edit]

* Khouri, Malek (2007). Filming Politics: Communism and the Portrayal of the Working Class at the National Film Board of Canada, 1939-46. University of Calgary Press. ISBN 9781552381991.

## External links

[edit]

* Drifters at IMDb

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