Filming the 1921-23 famine in Russia and Ukraine

The 1921-23 famine in Russia and Ukraine was the deadliest famine in modern European history, and one of the first objects of a major humanitarian aid campaign, involving the international media, including film. The films made in 1921-23 play a pivotal but little-understood role in the development of Soviet cinema, in its industrial development, ethical stance and stylistic character. This is evident from those who made films on this theme: Vsevolod Pudovkin, Dziga Vertov, Elizaveta Svilova, Eduard Tisse and Vladimir Gardin. However, the influence on the wider character and development of Soviet film is more significant and includes Sergei Eisenstein and Lev Kuleshov. Moreover, while the Soviet films overwhelmingly framed it as the ‘Volga’ famine, nearly a million died in Ukraine and Ukrainian cinema also depicted the famine there. The famine relief effort also enabled Soviet film to reach foreign audiences through the creation in Germany of Workers International Relief, famous under its Russian abbreviation Mezhrabpom, which employed film to raise funds, then created a studio in 1924. Examining the beginnings of Soviet film in the context of the famine grants a new perspective on the beginnings of Soviet film and Soviet film history.

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SPEAKER

Jeremy Hicks is Professor of Post-Soviet Cultural History and Film at QMUL, the author of four books and many articles on Russian, Ukrainian and Soviet film history, including Dziga Vertov: Defining Documentary Film (London and New York, 2007) and First Films of the Holocaust: Soviet Cinema and the Genocide of the Jews, 1938-46 (Pittsburgh, 2012) (winner of the 2013 ASEEES Vucinich prize). His forthcoming book is entitled, Filming the Red Famines: Representing and Forgetting the 1921-23 Famine in Russia and Ukraine.

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