Grierson returned to Great Britain in 1927 armed with the sense that film could be enlisted to build national morale and consensus, and to deal with social problems, a theory he would enact especially during the
Great Depression. Filmmaking for Grierson was an exalted, patriotic calling. Grierson's thinking was elitist in some ways, which he exposed with his many dicta of the time, such as "The elect have their duty" and "I look on cinema as a pulpit, and use it as a propagandist." Grierson was also a cultural relativist. In the US, he had met pioneering documentary filmmaker
Robert Flaherty and respected Flaherty immensely for his contributions to documentary form and his attempts to use the camera to bring alive the lives of everyday people and events. Less commendable in Grierson's view was Flaherty's invalidating focus on exotic and faraway cultures. ("In the profounder kind of way", wrote Grierson of Flaherty, "we live and prosper each of us by denouncing the other"). In Grierson's view, the focus of film should be on the everyday drama of ordinary people. As Grierson wrote in his diaries: "Beware the ends of the earth and the exotic: the drama is on your doorstep wherever the slums are, wherever there is malnutrition, wherever there is exploitation and cruelty." "'You keep your savages in the far place Bob; we are going after the savages of Birmingham,' I think I said to him pretty early on. And we did.")
Empire Marketing Board On his return to England, Grierson was employed on a temporary basis as an Assistant Films Officer of the
Empire Marketing Board (EMB), a governmental agency which had been established in 1926 to promote British world trade and British unity throughout the
empire. One of the major functions of the EMB was publicity, which the Board accomplished through exhibits, posters, and publications and films. It was within the context of this State-funded organisation that the "documentary" as we know it today got its start. In late 1929 Grierson and his cameraman,
Basil Emmott completed his first film,
Drifters, which he wrote, produced and directed. The film, which follows the heroic work of
North Sea herring fishermen, was a radical departure from anything being made by the British film industry or Hollywood. A large part of its innovation lies in the fierce boldness in bringing the camera to rugged locations such as a small boat in the middle of a gale while leaving relatively less of the action staged. The choice of topic was chosen less from Grierson's curiosity than the fact that he discovered that the Financial Secretary had made the herring industry his hobbyhorse. It premiered in a private film club in London in November 1929 on a double-bill with
Eisenstein's -then controversial- film
The Battleship Potemkin (which was banned from general release in Britain until 1954) and received high praise from both its sponsors and the press. The film was shown from 9 December 1929, in the Stoll in Kingsway and then was later screened throughout Britain. When Canada entered
World War II in 1939, the NFB focused on the production of
propaganda films, many of which Grierson directed. For example, captured footage of German war activity was incorporated in documentaries that were distributed to the then-neutral United States. Grierson grieved the death of his sister Ruby in 1940; she was on the
SS City of Benares while it was evacuating one hundred children to Canada. Grierson resigned from his position in January 1941. Over his year as Commissioner at the National Film Board 40 films were made; the year before the Motion Picture Bureau had made only one and a half.
Commission on Freedom of the Press Grierson was appointed as a foreign adviser to the Commission on Freedom of the Press in December 1943, which had been set up by the
University of Chicago. A few days earlier on 4 July 1969, Grierson had opened the
Scottish Fisheries Museum in
Anstruther. Grierson was a member of the jury for the Canadian Film Awards in 1970. He spent a few months in 1971, travelling around India instilling the importance of having small production units throughout the country. He returned to the UK in December 1971 and was meant to travel back to India; however, his trip was delayed by the
Indo-Pakistani War. Grierson went into hospital for a health check-up in January 1972; he was diagnosed with lung and liver cancer and was given months to live. During his time in hospital he spent time dictating letters to his wife, Margaret, and received visitors; however, he fell unconscious on 18 February and died on the 19th. In his wishes for his funeral he had detailed his desire to be cremated. Also according to his wishes, his urn was placed in the sea off the Old Head in
Kinsale, and his brother Anthony, who had died in August 1971, had his ashes placed at the same time. A small flotilla followed the
Able Seaman, which carried the ashes, and when the urns were lowered into the water, the fishing boats sounded their sirens. The Grierson Archive at the
University of Stirling Archives was opened by Angus Macdonald in October 1977. == Filmography ==