Film Collection

Resources (32)

• Among the audio-visual materials held by the Donnell Library Center are the following films:

• Alexander Nevsky

  (107 min.), 1938. Dir. Sergei Eisenstein.

• Battle of Russia, 1944

  Sixth in Frank Capra's series "Why We Fight," with coverage of the Nazi attack on the USSR, Russian music, footage from feature films, ending with the Siege of Leningrad.

• Battleship Potemkin

  (60 min., silent), 1925. Dir. Sergei Eisenstein, plus the "Odessa Steps" sequence from this film (8 min.).

• Bed and Sofa

  (112 min., silent), 192?. Dir. Abram Room. Fantasy of life in early Soviet Russia, showing the nearly Bohemian freedoms extolled but not actually existing.

• Committee on Un-American Activities

  (45 min.), n.d. A history of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), produced by Robert Cohen, from newsreels and interviews, covering 25 years.

• Counterpoint - The U2 Story

  No details available.

• Jaraslawa

  (10 min., color), 1975. Portrait of Jaraslawa Tkach, an old Ukrainian woman in New York state, by DeeDee Halleck.

• Kremlin

  (54 min., color), 1963. Photographed by J. Baxter Peters for NBC-TV; a documentary showing the construction, design, and art work of the Kremlin in Moscow.

• Last Year of the Tsars

  (19 min.), 1971. Newsreel footage plus scenes from Eisenstein's October and Strike; directed by Norman Swallow (from the Granada TV series Ten Days That Shook the World).

• Lenin and Trotsky

  (27 min.), 1964. CBS News production describing their work for the Revolution, consolidation of communist power, and their "eventual split."

• Man With a Movie Camera

  (55 min., silent), 1928. Dir. Dziga Vertov. One day on the streets of Moscow, using the "kino-eye" technique.

• Marc Chagall

  (25 min., color), 1964. The artist and his art from inspiration to final works (canvas, sculpture, and stained glass windows).

• March-April: The Coming of Spring

  (9 min., color), 1963. Spring scenes in rural, forested areas of the USSR, stressing the beauty of the land, animal activities, forest life, and elements of nature (Central Film Studies, Moscow).

• Matrioska

  (5 min., color), 1971. Animated short—a nest of wooden dolls splits apart and they perform a stately peasant dance (made for the National Film Board of Canada).

• Meet Comrade Student

  (54 min.), 1963. The Soviet educational system, curriculum, stress on competition, discipline, physical fitness; shows classes in session, education at a technical school, and extracurricular cultural and recreational activities of young Pioneers (produced and directed by Nicholas Webster for ABC-TV).

• Moiseyev Dancers in "The Strollers"

  (6 min., color), 1954. The troupe performs lively folk dances.

• Mother

  (80 min., silent), 1926. Dir. Vsevolod Pudovkin. Based on M. Gorkii's novel of the 1905 Revolution.

• Pysanka- A Story of the Ukrainian Easter Egg

  (10 min., color), 1975. The history, symbolism, and techniques of dyeing Ukrainian Easter eggs (Marco Pyrema).

• Religion in Russia

  (20 min., color), 1968. Brief history of Russia's 5 major religions, using rare footage and recently filmed scenes of restrictions on worship today.

• Revolt in Hungary

  (26 min.), 1958. Filmed during the October 1956 revolt, shows events leading up to the uprising and the severity of repression (CBS-TV, The Twentieth Century).

• Russia

  (24 min., color), 1958. Pre-revolutionary Russia from 1904–1905 newsreels, present-day agriculture, industry, medicine, housing, education, and religion (produced by J. Bryan).

• Siberia: A Day in Irkutsk

  (51 min., color), 1967. Vivid documentary of Irkutsk, with representative individuals spotlighted, showing their "resourcefulness and skills," and depicting the development of the city (NBC-TV).

• Stanislavsky: Maker of the Modern Theatre

  (28 min., color), 1972. History of the actor/ director's role in the modern theater, especially the founding of the Moscow Art Theater, with original photos and footage of MAT productions (Mosfilm production; English version by Harold Mantell).

• Steppe in Winter

  (13 min.), 1965. Poetic evocation of winter life on a collective farm in the steppes—farmers at work with farm animals, at home, and at the community recreational center.

• Stravinsky

  (49 min.), 1965. Informal portrait of his life and work—a recording session at which he conducts and reminiscences of his musical career. Dir. Roman Kroitor; produced by the National Film Board of Canada.

• Tchaikovsky Nutcracker

  Utilizes Ben Shahn illustrations.

• Ten Days That Shook the World

  (October) (60 min.), 1927. Dir. Sergei Eisenstein. The October/November Revolution of 1917.

• The Birth of Soviet Cinema

  (49 min.), 1972. Compilation of excerpts from classics of the 1920s (including films of Eisenstein, V. Pudovkin, and A. Dovzhenko), by Richard Schickel.

• The Nose

  (11 min.), 1963. By the French-Russian animator Alexander Alexeieff, based on the N. Gogol short story.

• The Russian Peasant

  (20 min., color), 1968. The peasant in history (photos and paintings), his modern role, and a background of peasant music (J. Bryan, producer).

• Women of Russia

  (12 min., color), 1968. Without narration the camera scans a cross section of Russian women at work, relaxing, with their families, and at their studies (occupations include crane operators, brick layers, field workers, ballerinas, and university students). (Produced by J. Bryan, conceived and edited by Yehuda Yaniv)