A silent documentary film by John Grierson telling the story of Britain's North Sea herring fishery.A silent documentary film by John Grierson telling the story of Britain's North Sea herring fishery.A silent documentary film by John Grierson telling the story of Britain's North Sea herring fishery.
- Director
Storyline
Did you know
- Alternate versionsPanamint Cinema [UK] VHS release with new musical accompaniment, 2001.
- ConnectionsEdited into Catalogue of Ships (2008)
Featured review
Documentary on Fishing Showing Man's Relationship With Machines
He was the writer who termed the genre "documentary" after reviewing Robert J. Flaherty's 1926 film "Moana." Scottish-born John Grierson wrote in the New York Sun newspaper his critique of the movie on native Samoans at work and play, stating Flaherty's movie is more of a purveyor of truth than any fictional films on exotic subjects. He explained in his New York Sun review that "'Moana,' being a visual account of events in the daily life of a Polynesian youth and his family, has documentary value."
It was natural Grierson, so versed in early film documentaries, would produce one of his own. In his 1929 "Drifters," he captured on film a two-day journey of a fishing trawler leaving an English seaport to the North Sea to catch herring. Movie historian Roger Manvell noticed, "The film grasped an ordinary phenomenon of current life and analyzed it, not with the object of making it appear extraordinary, but with the idea of integrating the dramatic elements of its very ordinariness."
One reviewer called Grierson's piece a 'Productionist" film, which seeks to show workers in relation to the machines they operate. In this case, the fishermen are the laborers employed with sophisticated nets and other gear as they catch as many herring as humanly possible. Just as in 'City Symphonies' films, Grierson's documentary shows workers alongside huge mechanisms similar to those found in factories and transports such as trains and ships. "Drifters,' however, also contains elements of the natural world, from seagulls to the vulnerable herring, reflecting human's relationship with the environment.
The uniqueness in "Drifters" was Basil Emmott's camerawork. He went where no cameraman had gone before, setting up shop in a small dingy to capture the trawler at work, filming while a rollicking storm churned up high waves. Grierson, who was involved in bringing Sergei Eisenstein's 1925 "Battleship Potemkin" to the United States, adopted the montage from the Soviet filmmakers and inserted a number of sequences using quick edits. Critic Paul Rotha noticed, "'Drifters' is the only film produced in this country (England) that reveals any real evidence of construction, montage of material, or senses of cinema."
Grierson played "Drifters" at a private London club along with "Battleship Potemkin" (it was illegal to project the Soviet film in United Kingdom's public movie theaters) in November 1929, and was later shown throughout Britain. He received a job with England's Empire Marketing Board, a branch of the government promoting trade through films and exhibits. He personally directed only one other film, preferring to produce other filmmakers' works.
It was natural Grierson, so versed in early film documentaries, would produce one of his own. In his 1929 "Drifters," he captured on film a two-day journey of a fishing trawler leaving an English seaport to the North Sea to catch herring. Movie historian Roger Manvell noticed, "The film grasped an ordinary phenomenon of current life and analyzed it, not with the object of making it appear extraordinary, but with the idea of integrating the dramatic elements of its very ordinariness."
One reviewer called Grierson's piece a 'Productionist" film, which seeks to show workers in relation to the machines they operate. In this case, the fishermen are the laborers employed with sophisticated nets and other gear as they catch as many herring as humanly possible. Just as in 'City Symphonies' films, Grierson's documentary shows workers alongside huge mechanisms similar to those found in factories and transports such as trains and ships. "Drifters,' however, also contains elements of the natural world, from seagulls to the vulnerable herring, reflecting human's relationship with the environment.
The uniqueness in "Drifters" was Basil Emmott's camerawork. He went where no cameraman had gone before, setting up shop in a small dingy to capture the trawler at work, filming while a rollicking storm churned up high waves. Grierson, who was involved in bringing Sergei Eisenstein's 1925 "Battleship Potemkin" to the United States, adopted the montage from the Soviet filmmakers and inserted a number of sequences using quick edits. Critic Paul Rotha noticed, "'Drifters' is the only film produced in this country (England) that reveals any real evidence of construction, montage of material, or senses of cinema."
Grierson played "Drifters" at a private London club along with "Battleship Potemkin" (it was illegal to project the Soviet film in United Kingdom's public movie theaters) in November 1929, and was later shown throughout Britain. He received a job with England's Empire Marketing Board, a branch of the government promoting trade through films and exhibits. He personally directed only one other film, preferring to produce other filmmakers' works.
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- springfieldrental
- Jul 4, 2022
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- Also known as
- Ribarski brodovi
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- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime49 minutes
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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