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Murray Grigor
Murray Grigor with Carol Colburn Grigor in 2012
Born	1939 Inverness, Scotland
Nationality	Scottish
Occupation	Film maker
Years active	1967–present
Spouse	Barbara Grigor (1968–1994) Carol Grigor (2011–present)
Children	Sarah Grigor (born 1970) Phoebe Grigor (born 1972)

William Alexander Murray Grigor OBE (born 1939) is a Scottish film-maker, writer, artist, exhibition curator and amateur architect who has served as director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival. He has made over 50 films with a focus on arts and architecture.

Early life

Grigor was born in 1939 in Inverness, and graduated from St Andrews University. He started his career as a film editor at the BBC which he left in 1967 to become director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival. In 1968, he married Barbara Grigor, née Sternschein, a teacher of French and German, film maker, exhibition curator, and chairman of the Scottish Sculpture Trust with whom he had two daughters, Sarah, b 1970 and Phoebe, b 1972. Barbara Grigor died in 1994. Grigor married Carol Colburn Grigor née Colburn in 2011.

Career

With his wife Barbara and Peter Rush, Grigor devised the Scotch Myths exhibition, which was mounted at the Crawford Centre at the University of St Andrews in the Spring of 1981 and went on to feature in the programme of the Edinburgh International Festival. Its exploration of popular representations of Scottish identity, notably Tartanry and the Kailyard, attracted much critical attention, influencing cultural and political debate in Scotland in the early 1980s. The exhibition inspired the three-day Scotch Reels event at the 1982 Edinburgh Film Festival, which explored representations of Scots and Scotland in cinema and television. Grigor contributed to an accompanying book of essays entitled Scotch Reels: Scotland in Cinema and Television edited by Colin McArthur. The success of the exhibition also led Channel 4 to commission Grigor to write and direct the film Scotch Myths which was screened at the Festival of Film and Television from the Celtic Countries held in Glasgow in March 1983.

From the 1980s, Grigor extended his film focus to include international, and particularly American subjects, such as the 1986 landmark 8 part series Pride of Place with Robert A.M. Stern for the American television channel PBS. In 1987 he wrote the screenplay for a feature-length film about the Scottish writer, adventurer and politician R.B. Cunninghame Graham, but he was unable to secure sufficient funding for its production. In 1997, he directed the PBS series "The Face of Russia" with James Billington, the Librarian of Congress. "Contemporary Days" on the British designers Robin and Lucienne Day for Design Onscreen of Denver Colorado, was premiered at the Glasgow Film Festival in February 2011. "Ever to Excel" - a feature documentary with Sir Sean Connery was funded in America to mark the 600th anniversary of the University of St Andrews for its scholarship endowment campaign, and had its British premiere at the 2012 Glasgow Film Festival. It was followed by sequel "Ever to Exceed' celebrating the achievements of St. Andrews' students, scholars and alumni. In 1976 he shot a video of Neil Young busking in Glasgow.

Grigor also worked as film producer and writer. Together with Barbara Grigor, he founded, in 1972, the film company Viz Ltd based in Inverkeithing, Scotland. Grigor has also written screenplays for all his films, and a number of exhibition catalogues to accompany his exhibitions. He was co-author of "The Architects' Architect" on C.R. Mackintosh with Richard Murphy and "Being a Scot" with Sir Sean Connery, published in 2008 and which is now published in 5 languages. "Beatus – The Spanish Apocalypse" on the illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages on the Book of Revelation, was invited in competition to the 2015 Montréal Festival du Film sur L'Art – the 4th film Grigor has made in partnership with Hamid Shams, the American Director of Photography.

In 2008, Grigor produced seven film loops for Los Angeles' Hammer Gallery exhibition Between Earth and Heaven about the architecture of John Lautner, which coincided with the premiere of his documentary Infinite Space on the same subject.

Appointments and awards

He was appointed, in 2007, as a member of the Scottish Broadcasting Commission.

Grigor is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and was the first film maker to be made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland and the Royal Institute of British Architects. Grigor is Visiting Professor of Film Studies at the Anglia Ruskin University, from which he received, in 2010, an Honorary Doctor of Arts.

Grigor was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2012 New Year Honours for services to architecture and the film industry.

Selected filmography

Grigor has directed the following films.

References

1. "Murray Grigor". Anglia Ruskin University
2. ^ "Obituary: Barbara Grigor". The Independent, 19 October 1994
3. Henderson. Paul Henderson (1981), Scotch Myths - 1, in The Bulletin of Scottish Politics No. 2, Spring 1981, pp. 62 - 66
4. Paterson, Lindsay (1981), Scotch Myths - 2, in The Bulletin of Scottish Politics No. 2, Spring 1981, pp. 66 - 71
5. MacArthur, Colin (1981), Breaking the Signs: 'Scotch Myths' as Cultural Struggle, in Murray, Glen (ed.),Cencrastus No. 7, Winter 1981 - 82, pp. 21 - 25, ISSN 0264-0856
6. McArthur, Colin (1983), Scotland: The Reel Image: 'Scotch Reels' and After, in Hearn, Sheila G. (ed.), Cencrastus No. 11, New Year 1983, pp. 2 & 3, ISSN 0264-0856
7. Caughie, John (1983), From 'Scotch Reels' to the 'Highland Fling': The Fourth International Festival of Film and Television in the Celtic Countries, in Hearn, Sheila G. (ed.), Cencrastus No. 13, Summer 1983, pp. 40 - 42, ISSN 0264-0856
8. McArthur, Colin (ed.) (1982), Scotch Reels: Scotland in Cinema and Television, BFI Publishing, ISBN 9780851701219
9. McArthur, Colin (1983), Tendencies in the New Scottish Cinema, in Hearn, Sheila G. (ed.), Cencrastus No. 13, Summer 1983, pp. 33 - 35, ISSN 0264-0856
10. Jauncey, James (2023), Don Roberto: The Adventure of Being Cunninghame Graham, Scotland Street Press, pp. 12 & 87, ISBN 9-781910-895764
11. "Watch remarkable footage of Neil Young busking on the streets of Glasgow back in 1976". Far Out Magazine. 20 December 2020. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
12. Later Patrick Higson, his colleague from the BBC joined the company and added considerably to its success. from Viz Ltd. Companies House, UK
13. "Sean Connery talks to Murray Grigor". Edinburgh International Book Festival 2011
14. "Membership". Archived from the original on 9 June 2010. Retrieved 4 January 2011. Biography of Murray Grigor on the website of the Scottish Broadcasting Commission
15. Citation for Murray Grigor on the website of the Anglia Ruskin University
16. "No. 60009". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2011. p. 10.
17. Murray Grigor. Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
18. Search. National Library for Scotland
19. Entries for Murray Grigor at the online catalogue in the Scottish Screen Archive, National Library for Scotland
20. "Contemporary Days: The Designs of Lucienne and Robin Day". Designs on Screen

Further reading

• McArthur, Colin (1983), Tendencies in the New Scottish Cinema, in Hearn, Sheil G. (ed.), Cencrastus No. 13, Summer 1983, pp. 33 - 35, ISSN 0264-0856
• McArthur, Colin (1990), "The Rises and Falls of the Edinburgh International Film Festival", in Dick, Eddie (ed.), From Limelight to Satellite: A Scottish Film Book, British Film Institute / Scottish Film Council, pp. 91 - 102, ISBN 978-0851702810
• McArthur, Colin, "Vanished or Banished? Murray Grigor as Absent Scots Auteur", in Nowlan, Bob & Finch, Zac (eds.) (2015), Directory of World Cinema: Scotland, Bristol Intellect Books, pp. 58 - 65, ISBN 9781783203956

External links

• Murray Grigor at IMDb

• Scottish documentary filmmakers
• Scottish film directors
• Alumni of the University of St Andrews
• Officers of the Order of the British Empire
• 1939 births
• Living people
• Fellows of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland
• People from Inverness