John Grierson was interested in modernist art, which he thought expressed the energies of a new age.
His own background was from a highly political family, whose cultivated the belief in Grierson that the media was a method to achieve social change.
His artist side attracted him to early artistic or creative documentaries such as the 'city symphony' films - such as Manhatta (USA, d. Paul Strand and Charles Sheeler, 1921) and Berlin: Symphony of a City (Germany, d. Walther Ruttman, 1926) - because of the way they portrayed the modern city in a poetic manner.
But it was probably his liberal upbringing and interest in his fellow man, as well as his artisan side which gave him an interest in the Soviet films, particularly those of Sergei Eisenstein.
Below is a extract of Night Mail (1936), one of Grierson's most famous films.
He was determined to follow his first principles and use only the actuality of real people, to which he added the very unreal but beautiful poetry of W H Auden, one of the foremost poets of that generation.
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