John Grierson (26 April 1898 – 19 February 1972) was a pioneering Scottish documentary maker, often considered the father of British and Canadian documentary film. In 1926, Grierson coined the term "documentary" in a review of Robert Flaherty's Moana.

Early life

Grierson was born in Deanston, near Doune, Scotland. His father was a schoolmaster, his mother a suffragette and ardent Labour Party activist. From an early age, both parents steeped their son in liberal politics, humanistic ideals, and Calvinist moral and religious philosophies, particularly the notion that education was essential to individual freedom and that hard and meaningful work was the way to prove oneself worthy in the sight of God.

Grierson entered the University of Glasgow in 1916, but then saw service on minesweepers in the Royal Navy during World War I. He returned to University in 1919, graduating in 1922 with a MA in English and Moral Philosophy. He spent a good part of his academic career enmeshed in impassioned political discussion and leftist political activism.

John Grierson or Grisson (died 1564?) was a Scottish Dominican.

Grierson was perhaps a member of the family of Grierson of Lag in Dumfriesshire, was a student of the university of Aberdeen, and in 1500 was principal of the King's College at that university. Previously to 1517 he became prior of the Dominican house at St. Andrews, and rose to be provincial of his order in Scotland before 1528. In 1542 he is described as doctor of divinity, provincial, and prior of St. Andrews; he resigned the priory before 1552. He was certainly alive in 1559, and is said to have survived till 1564. Echard says that he remained a firm Roman Catholic, and defended his faith by word and by deed.

According to Dempster, Grierson wrote:

Some letters which are preserved in R. F. Plaudius's history of the order. But Echard says that he had searched in vain for these letters, and it is possible that Grierson left no writings.

John Grierson was a Scottish documentary filmmaker.

John Grierson may also refer to:

John Grierson (2 January 1909 – 21 May 1977) was an English long-distance flier, test pilot, author, and aviation administrator.

Grierson started his flying lessons at Brooklands while still a schoolboy, graduated from RAF Cranwell in 1929, and flew out to India in 1930 in his own Gypsy Moth, named Rouge et Noir, to join his RAF Squadron. In the same aircraft he established a record in 1931 with a 41½-day flight from Karachi, India to Lympne, England, and in 1932 flew 8,800 miles across the USSR to Samarkand. He had asked his friend Bernard Shaw to lobby the Soviet authorities to grant him passage.

He met the Lindberghs in Reykjavík, Iceland in 1933. He was at that time attempting to fly solo to America in Rouge et Noir, now fitted with floats, but overturned on take-off. His next effort was in a Fox Moth named Robert Bruce. On his third try, Grierson successfully made the first London - Ottawa flight, at the same time making the first solo flight across the Greenland ice cap.