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Kino-Week, Nos. 31-35 (U.S.S.R., 1919);
The Eleventh Year (Odinnadtsatyi) (U.S.S.R., 1928)

The Eleventh Year (1928)
March 9, 2012 - 7:30 pm
In-person: 
Margarita Nafpaktitis, UCLA Slavic and East European Studies.

Prints courtesy of the Austrian Film Museum

Kino-Week, Nos. 31-35 (U.S.S.R., 1919)

Directed by Dziga Vertov

In this program, we see workers forced by the Russian government to clear the streets and sidewalks of Moscow after a heavy snowfall, the funerals of field commanders and a demonstration in Kiev protesting the murder of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg in Germany. As Yuri Tsivian writes, “(the protesters seem) ready to invade Germany to help Communists there.”

35mm, b/w, silent w/ Russian and Norwegian intertitles presented with live English translation, 16 fps, 45 min.

Print courtesy of the Austrian Film Museum

The Eleventh Year (Odinnadtsatyi) (U.S.S.R., 1928)

Directed by Dziga Vertov

Dziga Vertov, cinematographer Mikhail Kaufman, and editor Elizaveta Svilova worked in perfect harmony to create this visually and rhythmically spectacular film. Made to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the revolution—but only completed in “the eleventh year”—the film charts the excavation of a future riverbed for the construction of a giant hydroelectric power station.

Cinematographer: Mikhail Kaufman. Editor: Elizaveta Svilova.

35mm, b/w, silent w/ Russian intertitles and live English translation, 20 fps, 53 min.

Musical accompaniment provided by Cliff Retallick.