Kino-Pravda No. 15
About Kino-Pravda No. 15
Dziga Vertov's newsreel is cut into six blocks: against war, against the gods, education, agitation, sports and gymnastics, and the danger of a new war. The war block covers a disarmament conference and the Baltic states. The anti-religious block names the Living Church, a Komsomol Christmas, and the line that religion is the opiate of the masses. The education block is built around the Timiriazev biological station for young naturalists. Agitation and sport follow, including hockey, and the last block turns to the Ruhr and the risk of another war.
Cast & crew
More about Kino-Pravda No. 15
Dziga Vertov directed. Goskino produced it. The Austrian Film Museum dates the issue to spring 1923, times the existing print at 22 minutes 4 seconds at 18 frames per second, and gives its length as 458 meters. Boris Frantsisson photographed it and processed the intertitles. Ivan Beliakov and Mikhail Kaufman made the moving titles. The English subtitles used by the museum were translated by Bela Shayevich for MoMA.
Themes
Background
Issued in 1923, during the New Economic Policy. The closing section points at the Ruhr occupation and the chance of another European war.
Making
The six headings are on the museum copy itself: against war, against gods, education, agitation, sports and gymnastics, and the danger of war.
Look
Boris Frantsisson shot the issue and handled the intertitles. Ivan Beliakov and Mikhail Kaufman animated the moving titles.
Music
Silent, with Russian intertitles.
Preservation
The Austrian Film Museum holds a print of 458 meters, running 22 minutes 4 seconds at 18 fps. A shorter file, 15 minutes 51 seconds, is on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- The series title joins kino, cinema, with Pravda, the newspaper. This is issue 15 of 23, which ran from June 1922 to 1925.
- IMDb lists the next issue as Kino-Pravda No. 16, the Spring Kino-Pravda.
- Moving titles name the Il'ich electromechanical plant and a military-school identity card for Sergei Pavlovich Kondratiev, born in 1892.
- A Wikimedia file of the issue runs 15 minutes 51 seconds, shorter than the museum's 22-minute-4-second print.
- Elizaveta Svilova worked on the series as a whole. The museum credit on this issue names Frantsisson, Beliakov, and Kaufman, not a separate editor.
Scenes
- Titles set a disarmament conference against the heading Against war.
- A Komsomol Christmas is cut under the line that religion is the opiate of the masses.
- The last block turns to the Ruhr under the heading The danger of a new war.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Кино-Правда №15 (1923).webm)
