Aleksandr Medvedkin

A documentary on Soviet filmmaker Aleksandr Medvedkin, examining his tumultuous career, the rediscovery of his masterpiece Happiness, and Russia's struggles over the course of the 20th Century.

A full-length documentary film directed by Alexander Medvedkin tells about the nature of Maoism, the events in China in the 1960s and early 1970s

This half-hour documentary focuses on Medvedkin and his CineTrain of the 1930s, a sort of mobile film workshop, complete with post-production facilities, animation stations and a large laboratory. Traveling thousands of miles across the Russian countryside, the train stopped to have its filmmakers document Ukranian harvest practices, steel production facilities in southern Russia and other industrial / agricultural matters; With each crew member living in 1 square meter living quarters, all individuals on the train were responsible for various odd-jobs and other practical matters in addition to their own film-making concerns.

An extraordinary document from one of the Cold War's bitterest conflicts - between the Soviet Union and Communist China - this film spares no quarter in its indictment of Maoist evils and misrule.

Film by Aleksandr Medvekin to a metonymic Chinese friend, advocating against Mao and the Ussuri River Skirmish.

Film by Aleksandr Medvekin to a metonymic Chinese friend, advocating against Mao and the Ussuri River Skirmish.

A comedy about Krushchev's 'Virgin Lands' project, to transform the barren and inhospitable spaces of the vast Soviet Union into fertile agricultural plains. A classically Socialist-Realist narrative of an individual's 're-education'. Zhenia, a hapless idler, arrives with a band of enthusiastic young Konsomol members to build a new town in the steppe. Although his dream, like that of all the young participants, is 'to become a tractor driver and a hero', he isn't prepared to work for the honour.

A comedy about Krushchev's 'Virgin Lands' project, to transform the barren and inhospitable spaces of the vast Soviet Union into fertile agricultural plains. A classically Socialist-Realist narrative of an individual's 're-education'. Zhenia, a hapless idler, arrives with a band of enthusiastic young Konsomol members to build a new town in the steppe. Although his dream, like that of all the young participants, is 'to become a tractor driver and a hero', he isn't prepared to work for the honour.

A film about the development of virgin and fallow lands in Siberia, Kazakhstan, and the Volga region.

After the liberation of the Kuban by the Soviet Army troops, farmers return home and begin to restore the destroyed economy. Under the leadership of the young chairman, Nadiezdha Pritulyak, growers are working with great enthusiasm.

The first of what became a popular genre of wartime 'film-concerts', consisting of eight musical numbers, strung together by a loose plot. It shows soldiers leaving their village for the front; in their absence, the desolate but resolute young women of the village assume responsibility for the business of the farm

The first of what became a popular genre of wartime 'film-concerts', consisting of eight musical numbers, strung together by a loose plot. It shows soldiers leaving their village for the front; in their absence, the desolate but resolute young women of the village assume responsibility for the business of the farm

At the eve of the Second World War, one of the first color films, which has preserved for us the parade of athletes, which was held in 1939 on Red Square in Moscow.

A comedy about a naive young architect and his wild designs for a “New Moscow.” The Soviet censors weren't at all amused and shelved it.

Life in a Russian village at harvest time as idealized peasant pastoral, concentrating on the landscapes and folk songs of the region.

Life in a Russian village at harvest time as idealized peasant pastoral, concentrating on the landscapes and folk songs of the region.

A hapless loser (with the surname of Loser) undergoes misadventures with avaracious clergy, a tired horse, and a walking granary (among other things) on his road to collectivized happiness.

A hapless loser (with the surname of Loser) undergoes misadventures with avaracious clergy, a tired horse, and a walking granary (among other things) on his road to collectivized happiness.

A film report produced on Aleksandr Medvedkin's Kino-train, addressing the problems of living conditions in the October Mine in the Krivoi Rog region - a mine that, according to Medvedkin, was so improved by the experience of the kino-train that it subsequently became the most successful mine in the region.

The only surviving film from the first trip of Aleksandr Medvedkin's Kinopoezd (film train). A 'film-newspaper' demonstrating one key aspect of the train's work: the desire to encourage shame. In it, poor workers are named and shamed outright and local leaders are filmed at a lengthy and ill-focused meeting, ignoring the urgent demands of the work that surround them.

The eleven films that survived from the series of films shot, edited, and shown from three custom railway cars travelling throughout the Soviet Union from 1932 to 1935. A project by Alexandr Medvedkin, though he isn't mentioned in the titles. The cars were full of film prints, editing tables, actors. Films were made in one day: edited at night and the next day shown to the people who participated in it.

A short film by Aleksandr Medvedkin.

A short film by Aleksandr Medvedkin.

Lazy or incompetent peasants try to malinger and wriggle their way out of duties at the Kolkhoz.

Lazy or incompetent peasants try to malinger and wriggle their way out of duties at the Kolkhoz.

A short film made by Medvedkin, documenting the lack of hygiene in the Red Army.