A01=Alexander Medvedkin
Alexander Medvedkin
Author_Alexander Medvedkin
Bolshevism
Category=ATFA
Category=ATFB
censorship and suppression
documentary film
eq_art-fashion-photography
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
experimental film
Happiness (film)
Jay Leyda
Kino-Train
satire
Soviet film
Product details
- ISBN 9780226296135
- Weight: 737g
- Dimensions: 15 x 24mm
- Publication Date: 19 Oct 2016
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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Filmmaker Alexander Medvedkin (1900 89), a contemporary of Sergei Eisenstein and Alexander Dovzhenko, is celebrated today for his unique form of "total" documentary cinema, which aimed to bridge the distance between film and life, and for his use of satire during a period when the Soviet authorities preferred that laughter be confined to narrowly prescribed channels. This collection of selected writings by Medvedkin is the first of its kind and reveals how his work is a crucial link in the history of documentary film. Although he was a dedicated communist, Medvedkin's satirical approach and social critiques ultimately led to his suppression by the Soviet regime. State institutions held back or marginalized his work, and for many years, his films were assumed to have been lost or destroyed. These texts, many assembled for this volume by Medvedkin himself, document for the first time his considerable achievements, experiments in film and theater, and attempts to develop satire as a major Soviet film genre. Through scripts, letters, autobiographical writings, and more, we see a Medvedkin supported and admired by figures like Eisenstein, Dovzhenko, and Maxim Gorky.
This is a rich testimony to the talent and inventiveness of one of the Soviet era's most revolutionary filmmakers.
Nikita Lary is professor emeritus of humanities at York University in Toronto. Jay Leyda (1910 88) was professor of cinema studies at New York University.
