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Film and Reform

John Grierson and the Documentary Film Movement

Ian Aitken author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd

Published:11th Nov '13

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Film and Reform cover

Best known for his documentaries such as Drifters, North Sea, and Housing Problems, John Grierson was the most important figure in the British documentary film movement and one of the most influential of British film theorists.

This major assessment of Grierson and the documentary film movement examines the intellectual and aesthetic influences on his work, focusing on the material he produced in the inter-war years and comparing the idealistic strain of Grierson’s social commentary with other social reformists such as the Next Five Years Group and writers like Orwell and Priestley. Underlining the link between film and reform, the book clarifies the meaning and significance of Grierson’s ideas and the historical role of the documentary film movement. Originally published in 1990.

Reviews of the original edition:

"Film and Reform amounts to…an extraordinarily expansive intellectual biography…a valuable guidebook…Any subsequent writing….will have to incorporate these findings." – Jack Ellis

ISBN: 9780415726573

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 521g

264 pages