Director and producer, the first of John Grierson's
recruits to the Documentary Movement, joining him at the Empire Marketing
Board in 1931. With Song of Ceylon (1934), Wright established the distinctive
poetic quality which he brought to the British Documentary Movement,
and in 1936 he co-directed Night Mail (1936)with
Harry Watt. He formed the Realist Film Unit with
John Taylor and Alberto Cavalcanti in 1937,
and during the war worked at the Crown Film Unit, producing, for example,
Humphrey Jennings' A
Diary for Timothy (1945). He taught at the University of California
from 1960, and wrote The Use of Film (1948) and The Long View (1974).
