Grierson
”Celebrating 40 Years” is the title of the 3 mins. montage done by Peter Symes and Mandy Chang. A montage because of the 40 years since the death of John Grierson, the father of documentary, and the setting up of a series of awards in his name.
Go to the link below and check how many of the films you can recognise. Peter Symes asked me to do so, and I regret to say that it was only a handful. At the second and third view more came to my mind.
Anyway, what The Grierson Trust has been doing over the years is precisely a fine, non-commercial celebration of the documentary and if you look at the films awarded this year, you will find ”Hell and Back Again” (photo) by Dennis Danfung, Phil Cox ”The Bengali Detective” and Liz Garbus ”Bobby Fischer Against the World”. Kevin Macdonald (among others ”One Day in September”) received the Grierson Trustees’ Award, which before has been given to Michael Apted (SevenUp-series), Molly Dineen, BBC’s Nick Fraser, Paul Watson (”Rain in My Heart”), Penny Woolcock and John Pilger, to mention the names I know.
Back to the montage, listen to the voice under the images of ”Night Mail”, the voice of John Grierson. And click on the photos to see clips of winning films of this year – or the years before. Pure joy! Film history!
