Woman with a Movie Camera: My Life as a Russian Filmmaker by Marina Goldovskaya , Antonina W. Bouis (review)

Abstract

120 SEER, 87, I, JANUARY 200g materials more accessible. Indeed it is the museum's intention to make the greater part of the archive publicly available online. This attitude is born of a desire to do more than simply describe the collection. The book's purpose is also to stimulate 'further academic and artistic projects' (p. 5). One way inwhich itdoes this is through a number of short and longer pieces which contextualize the collection and itshistory.The other way inwhich the book sets out to promote research into and under standing ofVertov is by reproducing and translatingmeaty portions of the archive. Most valuable are the translations of a number of the many Vertov writings which do not appear in thewidely available edition of his works such as Vertov's 1947 annotated CV, the 'ArtisticCalling Card' ('Tvorcheskaia kartochka'). This fascinating document was published inKinovedcheskiezapiski in 1996, but is here for the firsttime available in both English and German. This document grants us considerable insight into a number of things such as the strivingby Vertov tomake the kinoki into a genuine mass journalistic organization after the model of the worker correspondents. Some of the other fascinating documents include a montage list forKinopravda No. 13 and a musical scenario for One Sixth of the Earth. As ever, it is possible to take issue with some of the translations such as thepersistent rendering of zhizn' vrasplokh as 'life caught unawares', rather than 'life off-guard' and neigrovoe kino as 'non feature film' rather than 'unplayed' or 'non-fiction' film. Nevertheless, theyare generally good, and an immense boon to thosewithout Russian. The volume reproduces a number of the collection's previously unpub lished photographs including fascinating images of Vertov in conversation with the young pioneers from the filmKino-Eye and a picture of Svilova and Vertov working together on the direction ofEnthusiasm.As the commentary suggests, this may be visual corroboration of the couple's closer and more equal artistic collaboration after the splitwith Vertov's brother, Mikhail, in I929 We also have translations here of a number of Vertov's poems, which while not great poetry (andVertov never attempted topublish them) grant valuable insight intohis thinking.Along with the restof the collection, theyopen a new path to the dizzy vertex ofDziga Vertov. Queen Mary, Universityof London JeremyHicks Goldovskaya, Marina. Woman with a Movie Camera: My Life as a Russian Filmmaker.Translated by Antonina W. Bouis. University ofTexas Press, Austin, TX, 2006. xii + 263 pp. Illustrations. Filmography. Appendix. Index. $24.95 (paperback). Woman with aMovie Camera, thememoirs of one of themost accomplished Russian documentary filmmakers, provides a unique gendered perspective on theRusso-Soviet film industry from the Stalin era to the present. The tide of Marina Goldovskaia's book harkens back toDziga Vertov's seminalMan with aMovie Camera, and evokes one of Vertov's favourite themes: the fate of the Soviet woman. These memoirs also pay homage to the genre of the personal REVIEWS 121 essay-film. Through her overtly subjective stance and autobiographical meditations, Goldovskaia creates a verbal counterpart to thepersonal filmand animates themore familiar picture of Soviet filmhistory. In the firstpart of the book, Goldovskaia examines her childhood and youth in Stalinist and early post-Stalinist Russia, and discusses what influ enced her to become a filmmaker. Goldovskaia opens her book with a chapter dedicated to her father,Evsei Goldovskii, the chief designer of Soviet film technology. She skilfullyintertwines the general and the personal in the chapters about her apartment building, where most of the Soviet film elite lived, and the filmmakers' resort in theMoscow suburb of Bolshevo. The author recollects her encounters with major Soviet filmmakerswith humour and sometimes with irony, thus commenting on this exclusive community's lifestyle during Soviet times.While most Soviet film histories deal with cultural politics, Goldovskaia presents a very personal account of Soviet film culture, the cinematographer's everyday life. The second part of the book is organized by film. Each chapter discusses the inspiration forGoldovskaia's films, as well as the actual production cir cumstances and the reception of the films by the authorities and the public. Interspersed with these chapters are discussions of her opinions on topics related to filmmaking, such as 'Once...