Working through the night in the churning North Sea, the lives of 1920s herring fisherman are brought dramatically to the screen in this ground-breaking silent documentary. Drifters premiered in 1929 in a double-bill with Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin – director John Grierson was strongly influenced by Eisenstein’s powerful use of film editing. This screening will be accompanied by a new, spontaneously improvised score created by the young musicians of East Leeds-based Chapel FM Jazz Collective.
Yorkshire Silent Film Festival presents an annual festival and a year-round programme of live-scored film across Yorkshire.