This is an account of Soviet documentary output during the years between the Great October Socialist Revolution and the Great Patriotic War. Graeme Roberts re-views the examples of Soviet, and world, non-fiction cinema, like The Man With the Movie Camera and The Fall of the Romanovs, and uncovers many intriguing films. He discusses the careers of the men and women who made them, including Vertov, Shub, Medvedkin and Karmen, and investigates the problems of analysis and context, offering insights into that context. The text demonstrates how, through looking as the history of Soviet non-fiction film, it becomes possible to gain insight into the agencies that shaped Soviet culture and history under Stalinist regime into and beyond the 1930s.
