Kino-Pravda No. 23: Radio Pravda
About Kino-Pravda No. 23: Radio Pravda
The last Kino-Pravda follows a peasant who buys a radio receiver, is shown how to raise an antenna and wire a crystal set, and hears a concert from a new station. Titles date the start of construction on the first radio-telephone station to 30 September 1921. Aleksandr Bushkin's animation diagrams the parts, from the spool and detector to the ground wire. An intertitle says radio is a newspaper without paper and without distance.
Cast & crew
More about Kino-Pravda No. 23: Radio Pravda
Dziga Vertov directed Kino-Pravda No. 23, subtitled Radio Pravda, for Goskino (Kultkino) in 1925. It was the last of the 23 issues, which had started in June 1922. The Austrian Film Museum times the existing print at 20 minutes 3 seconds at 18 frames per second and gives its length as 413 meters. Ivan Beliakov and Mikhail Kaufman photographed it. Aleksandr Bushkin made the animation.
Themes
Background
By 1925 the state was pushing radio into the countryside as a way to speak past the shortage of projectors and prints.
Making
The surviving reel keeps the shop counter, the antenna lesson, the station under construction, and Bushkin's drawn diagrams of coils, crystals, and leads.
Look
Ivan Beliakov and Mikhail Kaufman photographed the issue. Aleksandr Bushkin animated the diagrams of the receiver.
Music
Silent, with Russian intertitles.
Preservation
The Austrian Film Museum holds a print of 413 meters, running 20 minutes 3 seconds at 18 fps. A file is on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- The museum's English headings are: a peasant buys a receiver, instructions for an antenna, building a broadcast station, and the broadcast of a concert.
- The intertitle "Radio is a newspaper without paper and without distance" repeats a line of Lenin's.
- Bushkin's other 1925 cartoon is Durman Demyana, an anti-alcohol short.
- Elizaveta Svilova and Mikhail Kaufman worked with Vertov across the Kino-Pravda series. On this issue the camera credit is Beliakov and Kaufman.
- A Wikipedia file of related material runs 18 minutes 8 seconds. The museum print is the 20-minute-3-second timing.
Scenes
- A peasant is shown how to put up an antenna after he buys the set.
- Bushkin's animation labels the spool, detector, crystal, and ground wire.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (1925. Kino-Pravda 23.webm)
Quotes
Radio is a newspaper without paper and without distance.
