Kino-Pravda No. 20: Pioneer Pravda
About Kino-Pravda No. 20: Pioneer Pravda
Young Pioneers go to the country and to the zoo. Familiar children from Kino-Eye turn up, including the ones Tsivian nicknames in translation "Little Smoked Sprat" and "The Gypsy Kid," fussing over a toddler born after 1917. A bearded peasant tells them how to work and makes a pun: the one who works is Lenin, and the one who does not is lazy, because the Russian word for laziness is len. A train ride is cut into rushing landscapes.
Cast & crew
More about Kino-Pravda No. 20: Pioneer Pravda
Wikidata dates it December 12, 1924, and names Mikhail Kaufman as cameraman. The Austrian Film Museum places it at the end of 1924 and times its copy at 15 minutes 56 seconds. Yuri Tsivian says the issue was cut from footage left over from Kino-Eye and released after that feature, a looser sequel rather than a new campaign.
Themes
Making
Because it uses Kino-Eye leftovers, several of the children are already known from that film.
Look
Mikhail Kaufman shot the Pioneer trips. Tsivian compares the railway landscapes, cut very short, to Abel Gance's La Roue.
Preservation
The Austrian Film Museum holds a copy running 15 minutes 56 seconds.
Notes
- The Pioneers had been founded in 1922. This issue is titled Pioneer Pravda.
- Tsivian treats the toddler as a child with no memory of life before October 1917.
- The peasant's line turns on len, laziness, and Lenin.
- The railway passage is the most abrupt cutting in the reel.
Scenes
- Pioneers crowd around the youngest child on the outing.
- Landscapes streak past in the railway sequence.
Influenced by
- Kino-Eye (1924)
Also available
- Austrian Film Museum (vertov.filmmuseum.at)
Quotes
The one who works is Lenin, the one who does not is lazy.
