Russian
and Eurasian Films at MHC
Documentaries, Biographies
Enthusiasm
(Enthuziasm, Simfoniia Donbassa) (1930)
DK266.4 .E569 1980z
Director: Dziga Vertov
Original sound, no dialog
Vertov and his Kino group produced this lyrical documentary on the
lives of Coal miners in Donbas who are struggling to meet their
production quotas under the five year plan.
(70 min.)
The
Fall of the Romanov Dynasty (1927)
DK246 .F34 1991
Director: Esther Shub
An innovative documentary portraying the fall of the Czarist regime
and the rise of Communist rule, compiled from numerous films, including
some from the Czar's family.
(90 min.)
How
I Worked for Stalin, or, Songs of the Oligarchs (Ia sluzhil v apparate
Stalina, ili, Pesni oligarkhov) (1990) DK268.S8 I18 1990
Director: Semyon Aranovich
Cast: Dmitri Sukhanov, Marfa Sukhanova, Andrei Malenkov, Yuri Zhdanov,
Zinaida Zhdanov
Combines the testimony of eyewitnesses with rare archival photographs
and film in an examination of the strong men who ran the Soviet
state for Stalin. From Zhdanov, Andreyev, Khrushchev, Malenkov and
Suslov to Molotov, the documentary follows the bloody trail to Stalin's
successor.
(67 min.)
Leo
Tolstoy: a Brilliant Look at the Life of Leo Tolstoy
(1984)
PN1997 .L463 1984
Director: Sergei Gerasimov
Cast: Sergei Gerasimov, Tamara Makarova, Nikolai Eremenko, Marina
Ustimenko
This film traces the turbulent life of one of the greatest writers
of the 19th century, Leo Tolstoy. We follow his life from childhood
through his stormy marriage and up to his death. This film is vital
for all who are interested in gaining a true insight into the driving
forces behind Tolstoy's magnificent body of works.
(103 min.)
Magnitogorsk
(1996)
DK781.M3 M33 1996
Director: Pieter Jan Smit
A documentary about the fortunes of three generations living in
the shadow of Russia's most breath-taking industrial project of
the thirties. The bare steps of the Urals were transformed at breakneck
speed into a blast-furnace complex, and a city was raised out of
the ground - Magnitogorsk. The film was inspired by Joris Iven's
1932 film, Song of the Heroes, about the building up of the
Soviet Union and the celebration of the new Soviet worker.
(60 min.)
Paradise
(Shshastie) (1995)
DK908.867 .C43 1995
Director: Sergey Dvortsevoy
Records the life of a nomadic shepherd and his family in the Southern
Kazakhstan mountains.
(23 min.)
The
Personal File of Anna Akhmatova (Lichnoe delo Anny Akhmatovoi) (1989)
PG3476.A324 L54 1991
Director: Semyon Aranovich
The painful and courageous story of an artist in a totalitarian
society and a visual catalog of the times.
(63 min.)
Sergei
Eisenstein, Autobiography (1996)
PN1998.3.E34 S47 1999
Director: Oleg Kovalov
Based on Eisenstein's memoirs, this autobiographical film reflects
the inner world of the great Russian film director during the tragic
years of two Russian revolutions and the Stalin terror. The film
follows Eisenstein on a long voyage abroad which he started in 1929,
and presents transformed episodes from Eisenstein's films and his
contemporaries, as well as rare archival shots of Eisenstein himself
presented with a soundtrack of Eisenstein's reminiscences, which
are sometimes very personal.
(92 min.)
Solovki,
Testimonies and Documents (Vlast Solovetskaia: svidetelstvo i dokumenty)
(1988)
HV8964.R8 V55 1988
Director: Marina Goldovskaia
This film takes us to the notorious Solovtski Labor Camps in the
White Sea which remain a painful symbol of Stalin's cruel forced
labor policies.
(88 min.)
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