The Grierson Sisters: Today We Live

We celebrate the innovative films of Ruby and Marion Grierson, sisters of revered documentarian John Grierson.

  • Total running time 75min

So This is London

UK 1933. Director Marion Grierson. 14min. 35mm

Beside the Seaside

UK 1935. Director Marion Grierson, 23min. 35mm

Today We Live

UK 1937. Director Ruby Grierson, Ralph Bond. 25min. 35mm

They Also Serve

UK 1940. Director Ruby Grierson, 10min. 35mm

Though too often overshadowed by their brother, Marion and Ruby Grierson also made pioneering contributions to the British Documentary Film Movement. Marion’s So This is London is a gorgeously shot portrait of the capital, while her lyrical Beside the Seaside makes witty use of an array of cinematographic techniques (screening here in the premiere of a glorious new print made by the BFI National Archive). Ruby’s Today We Live vividly demonstrates her sympathy with the struggles of working people, while They Also Serve, her final film before her early death, offers a rarely seen glimpse into the domestic life of an ever-smiling ‘Mum’, via a dramatised wartime documentary dedicated to ‘the Housewives of Britain’. This film also screens from a new BFI National Archive 35mm print.

Ros Cranston

Beside the Seaside contains a scene that reflects racist views that were pervasive at the time.