Exactly 100 years ago, Soviet filmmaker Dziga Vertov, together with his future wife Elizaveta Svilova (they would marry in 1923) and his brother Mikhail Kaufman, started the newsreel series Kino-Pravda, named after Pravda, the main official newspaper in the Soviet Union. The first issue of the series was released in 1922 and subsequently 22 more until 1925. In spite of limited resources, the film provides a ground for Vertov’s film experiments. Through novel film techniques and montage, he transforms documentary footage of Soviet everyday life into powerful political statements. A practice and a display of Vertov’s Kino-Eye theory, the work is a precursor to the filmmaker’s pioneering Kino-Eye (1924) and Man with a Movie Camera (1929).
In 2017, the Austrian Film Museum digitised the series (except the lost No. 12), subtitled in English and German, and shared it online.
Watch the film and further reading:
https://vertov.filmmuseum.at/en/film_online/kino-pravda
Photo Credits: Österreichisches Filmmuseum
