Ruby Grierson

Ruby Isobel Grierson (* 1904 in Stirling , Scotland , † September 18, 1940 in the North Atlantic ) was a British documentary film director and producer.

Life

Ruby Grierson was born in 1904 as one of eight children to school principal Robert Morrison Grierson and his wife Jane (née Anthony), a suffragette and Labor Party supporter . She was the younger sister of director John Grierson , who is considered to be the founder of the documentary film movement of the 1930s. Like her mother, Grierson trained to be a teacher. She first encountered filmmaking in 1935 when she worked as an assistant on the documentary Housing Problems , directed by Arthur Elton and Edgar Anstey .

The following year she appeared as a director, London Wakes Up . The film was part of a series by the Strand Film Company about everyday life in London . While the other episodes were criticized for their scriptless portrayal, Grierson's film received praise. The film was produced by Paul Rotha . In collaboration with Rotha, the films Today and Tomorrow (1936) and Today We Live (1937) were made, in which the work of the National Council of Social Service was discussed. For the Strand Film Company, Grierson realized two parts of a zoological series, Animal Kingdom - The Zoo and You and Animals on Guard (both 1938). She then left the beach and joined the Realist Film Unit in 1939. Her first job for this film production company was Cargo for Ardrossan (1939).

After the outbreak of World War II , Grierson began making propaganda films. Her next four productions were all commissioned by the British Ministry of Food: Choose Cheese , Green Food for Health , Six Foods for Fitness and What's for Dinner? (all 1940). These films were intended to show the British people how to get by with home-grown food and government food rations during the war. Her next work, They Also Serve (1940), was about the contribution of British housewives and mothers to the war effort.

At the center of Grierson's next project was the evacuation of British children to Canada , which had been promoted by the government since July 1940 as part of the Children's Overseas Reception Board (CORB). For this purpose, Grierson went with her equipment on September 13, 1940 in Liverpool on board the British ocean liner City of Benares , which was to sail to Quebec and Montreal . Five days later, the unarmed, unescorted ship southwest of Rockall was torpedoed by the German submarine U 48 in the middle of the night and sank within 30 minutes. Of the 406 people on board, 248 were killed, most of them women and children. Ruby Grierson was also among the dead. Her body was never recovered.

In 1994, a 30-minute biographical documentary about the life of Ruby Grierson entitled Ruby Grierson: Re-Shooting History was produced for the broadcaster BBC One (director: Fiona Adams).

Filmography

• London Wakes Up (1936)
• Today and Tomorrow (1936)
• People of Britain (1936)
• Today We Live: A Film of Life in Britain (1937)
• Animal Kingdom - The Zoo and You (1938)
• Cargo for Ardrossan (1939)
• Animals on Guard (1939)
• They Also Serve (1940)
• What's for Dinner? (1940)
• Choose Cheese (1940)
• Six Foods for Fitness (1940)
• Green Food for Health (1940)

Web links

• Brief biography of Ruby Grierson
• Ruby Grierson in the Internet Movie Database (English)