Men with Movie Cameras: Flaherty and Grierson

Abstract

The list of foundational figures in the history of documentary — those documentary filmmakers whose work has been identified as integral to the development of documentary practices — is a varied one. Dziga Vertov, Walther Ruttmann, Joris Ivens, Pare Lorentz and Leni Riefenstahl are prominent in accounts of world documentary cinema, while two figures, Robert Flaherty (1884–1951) and John Grierson (1898–1972), are generally considered to be the founders of English language documentary. The pioneering status of both Flaherty and Grierson rests on the fact that both filmmakers developed practices, methods, techniques, and most notably in Grierson’s case, institutional arrangements and a body of theoretical writing that in varying ways, formed the bases of documentary as it continues to be practiced in numerous countries worldwide.KeywordsFishing IndustryTrading PostSilent FilmDocumentary FilmPhilosophic SenseThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.