Post-Revolution Nonfiction Film

Joshua Malitsky is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication and Culture at Indiana University Bloomington.

"[M]alitsky's book is an extremely valuable contribution to both film theory and film history and should become required reading for students of film with a focus on documentary.October 2014"—Russian Review"A book that analyzes Soviet cinema side-by-side with Cuban film is welcome, even though the two countries are represented here in parallel. . . . Highly recommended."—Choice"A splendid and highly readable book which imbues a suggestive comparison of cinema in the early years of the Soviet and Cuban revolutions with fresh insights."—Michael Chanan, author of Cuban Cinema"Joshua Malitsky here mines a rich seam. By closely comparing Vertov and Alvarez he uncovers 'post-revolutionary nonfiction film' as a discernible entity with commonalities shared across time and cultures. The extensive—indeed vast—archive of newsreels from both filmmakers is well worth the thorough attention he gives it, suggesting a context for their better-known documentaries. And his situating of Esfir Shub's compilations as not so much an alternative to Vertov but rather a wholesale replacement approach to agitprop is also compelling. All in all, Malitsky offers a crucial corrective to much received thinking on 20th century radical film."—Brian Winston, University of Lincoln, UK

• Acknowledgments1. Introduction: Revolutionary Rupture and National StabilityPart 12. Kino-Nedelia, Early Documentary, and the Performance of a New Collective, 1917-19213. A Cinema Looking For People: The Individual and the Collective in Immediate Post-Revolutionary Cuban Nonfiction FilmPart 24. The Dialectics of Thought and Vision in the Films of Dziga Vertov, 1922-19275. (Non)Alignments and the New Revolutionary ManPart 36. Esfir Shub, Factography, and the New Documentary Historiography7. The Object of Revolutionary History: Santiago Álvarez' Commemorative Newsreels and Chronicle Documentaries, 1972-1974NotesFilmographyBibliographyIndex