Drifters (1929)

Directed by

John Grierson

Genre

documentary film, silent film

Country

United Kingdom

Runtime

50 min

Rating

5.9 of 10 from 17 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This silent film follows the work of herring fishermen in the North Sea. It shows their daily tasks on the boats and the processing of the catch onshore.

observationalrhythmicearnestmethodicalmatter-of-factausterequietly absorbing

What happens

Drifters is a 1929 silent documentary film by John Grierson, his first and only "personal" film. It tells the story of Britain's North Sea herring fishery. The film's style has been described as being a "response to avant-garde, Modernist films, adopting formal techniques such as montage – constructive editing emphasising the rhythmic juxtaposition of images – but also aimed to make a socially directed commentary on its subject" (Tate Gallery: Liverpool 2006). The film was successful both critically and commercially and helped kick off Grierson's documentary film movement. This film also showed that Grierson was not afraid to alter reality slightly in order to have his vision shown. For example, when the boat he was on returned without a catch he bought another boat's catch and tried to fake it. He ended up scrapping that film as it was not authentic enough. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

• The North Sea Outrage (1904)
• L'industrie du hareng à Boulogne-sur-Mer (1923)
• Down Channel (1929)
• 't Schot is te Boord! (1951)
• Yarmouth Fishing Boats Leaving Harbour (1896)
• Netz über Bord – Heringsfang auf der Nordsee (1955)
• The Codfish Industry in Newfoundland (1912)
• Sildefiskeri (1934)