A portrait of John Grierson, the first Canadian Government Film Commissioner and founder of the National Film Board in 1939. Interweaving archival footage, interviews with people who knew him and footage of Grierson himself, this film is a sensitive and informative portrait of a dynamic man of vision. Grierson believed that the filmmaker had a social responsibility, and that film could help a society realize democratic ideals. His absolute faith in the value of capturing the drama of everyday life was to influence generations of filmmakers all over the world. In fact, he coined the term 'documentary film'.

Experimental documentary focusing on a day in the life of city workers, featuring montage sequences and repetition to emphasise the monotony of routine office work.
A body struggles to get out of bed; a hand knocks a clock onto the floor and there is a close-up of an alarm clock. We see a montage of legs getting out of bed, followed by fragments of different bodies exercising. Many people rushing to get to work on the bus and train are shown, succeeded by shots of people going about routine actions in a bored manner within an office environment. A lunch break occurs, which includes a stop-motion scene of food dancing around on a plate. After work we see workers visit either a show or the cinema, and then focus upon the subjective mind of an audience member: we see him looking tired at the show, intercut with him getting into bed and dreaming. The above routine is then repeated at an even faster rate, compressing the activities and including a few new intercut clips, such as workers at a factory and telephone operators at work.