Drawing on the collections of major Russian institutions, contributions from contemporary artists, curators and performers and personal testimony from the descendants of those involved, the film brings the artists of the Russian Avant-Garde to life. It tells the stories of artists like Chagall, Kandinsky and Malevich - pioneers who flourished in response to the challenge of building a new art for a new world, only to be broken by implacable authority after 15 short years and silenced by Stalin's Socialist Realism.
Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: Streetcar collision / Arms manufacturing plant resumes operation / Assembling an automobile / Bicycle and motorcycle races / A parade of Red Army armored units and an attack exercise.
Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: A bet is placed on the outcome of the Trial of the Socialist Revolutionaries / The verdict / People in streetcars and on the street / A crashed aircraft / Reconstruction of streetcar line 13 / Peacetime use of tanks – airport construction work.
Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: Congress of the "Living Church" / Opening of the horse racing season / Demonstration of an American movie camera / Operation of mobile projection units.
Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: International Youth Day and demonstrations / All-Russian Olympiad / Streetcar collision / Construction of automobiles in a Petrograd factory.
Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: All-Russian Congress of Trade Unions / Delegations and diplomats / Renaming of a confectionery factory / Unloading supplies / Komsomol Day / Red Army maneuvers.
Lost Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel
Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: IV. Congress of the Comintern / Congress of the Profintern.
Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: Arts and crafts exhibition / Actions against hunger / Eisenstein's first film "Dnevnik Glumova" ("Glumov's Diary") / Young Pioneers / May 1, parades
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known as Lenin, is remembered as the instigator of the October Revolution of 1917 and, therefore, as one of the men who changed the shape of the world at that time and forever, but perhaps the actual events happened in a way different from that narrated in the history books…
On July 5th, 1922, Norwegian explorer, scientist and diplomat Fridtjof Nansen creates a passport with which, between 1922 and 1945, he managed to protect the fundamental human rights as citizens of the world of thousands of people, famous and anonymous, who became stateless due to the tragic events that devastated Europe in the first quarter of the 20th century.
A portrait of the leading female Bolshevik (and later Worker’s Opposition) revolutionary leader Alexandra Kollontai using her own words.
Starting in 1881 this film shows the personal battle between Lenin's Ulyanov family and the royal Romanovs that eventually led to the Russian revolution.
The sequel of feature-publicistic film «You Can’t Live Like That». Showing the countrymen charmless and sometimes scaring life picture of once great power with pain and anger, the author tries to uncover the reason of the country’s and nation’s tragedy.
Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: Trial of the Socialist Revolutionaries / Motor race Moscow – Sevastopol' / Barges loaded with grain are sent to the starving in the provinces / The Caucasus and its resorts.
Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: Peasant People's Commissar for Agricultural Affairs, Vasilij Jakovenko / Health resort Soči / Sanatorium for children / Harness racing - The first Red Derby.
Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: Hunger and harvest / Alliance between city and country / Agricultural and home industries exhibition: To the exhibition, construction work and preparations, exhibits, map of the exhibition, visitors
Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: Up the Eiffel Tower in Paris / Moscow / Auto race Petrograd – Moscow / Aspects of everyday Soviet life / Peasant from Jaroslavl' visiting Moscow / Ceremonial introduction of a newborn into a workers' collective
Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: Reports of the Pioneers: Excursion to the country, to the zoo etc.
Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: First anniversary of Lenin's death / Smycka of the city and the village: group of peasants visit Moscow / Lenin's effect on peasants and oppressed nations