E.M.B. classics Drifters, Industrial Britain, Song of Ceylon

Summary: Three early documentaries that were produced by the Empire Marketing Board or E.M.B.. John Grierson coined the term "documentary" and founded the British Documentary Film Movement. "Drifters" (1929) is his first effort. "Drifters," about the herring industry, looks back to turn-of-the-century British actualities which regularly depicted work processes. The filmmaker uses contemporary stylistics giving it a distinctive modernist look. "Industrial Britain" (1933) started by Robert Flaherty but completed by Grierson, displays a wide variety of labor processes in 1930's Britain. Uses frequent low angles and closeups to herocize the workers. Narration is used to suggest that the workers are the bedrock of Britain's industrial might and sustain the British Empire. "Song of Ceylon" (1934) directed by Basil Wright, a Grierson protege, looks at a British Colony (now Sri Lanka) from a "Orientalist" perspective. The filmmakers blend timeless images with commentary written by Robert Knox, a British explorer, over 150 years earlier.