John Grierson was born in 1898 and he is considered as the father of British and Canadian documentary. In 1926, Grierson coined the term documentary to describe a non-fiction film. In 1924, after graduating from the university in moral philosophy, he went to study in the US to University of Chicago and later at Columbia. His research focus was the psychology of propaganda and the impact of the press, film and other mass media on forming public opinion.
As a director he made only 2 films but he produced a great number of films and he was the one who created the film unit within the Empire Marketing Board (EMB) in U.K. from where the movement of British documentary started.