Grierson, the British Documentary Movement, and Colonial Cinema in British Colonial Africa

In his last interview in 1970, John Grierson stated that documentary’s greatest achievement was the simple educational film—particularly the health education film used to help people in less privileged countries. Starting from this statement, this article shows that the colonial film units—not the British documentary movement—pioneered this genre and chronicles the uneasy relationship between these two branches of documentary practice up to their involvement with UNESCO. The article concludes with the speculation that Grierson’s experience at UNESCO and the Films Division of the Central Office of Information may have influenced his surprising valedictory statement.