history Tag Archive

“Advocate” is the chapter title in Erik Barnouw’s book Documentary discussing the era between the 1920’s and 1940’s in documentary filmmaking. John Grierson pioneered a completely different use for documentary film making, turning from observational to propaganda. (The distinction between documentary and fictional films was first made by Grierson. ) From most angles of modern scholarship, the term “propaganda” has negative connotations associated with Naziism or the Soviets’ Communism. But Grierson, a Briton who studied moral philosophy and then spent a great amount of time understanding American mindset, also used film for propaganda’s sake. By so doing, he found commercial success in the production of documentary film as propaganda. (more…)