Post-revolution nonfiction film: building the Soviet and Cuban nations

Description

In the charged atmosphere of post-revolution, artistic and political forces often join in the effort to reimagine a new national space for a liberated people. Joshua Malitsky examines nonfiction film and nation building to better understand documentary film as a tool used by the state to create powerful historical and political narratives. Drawing on newsreels and documentaries produced in the aftermath of the Russian revolution of 1917 and the Cuban revolution of 1959, Malitsky demonstrates the ability of nonfiction film to help shape the new citizen and unify, edify, and modernize society.;Introduction: revolutionary rupture and national stability -- Kino-nedelia, early documentary, and the performance of a new collective, 1917-1921 -- A cinema looking for people: the individual and the collective in immediate post-revolutionary Cuban nonfiction film -- the dialectics of thought and vision in the films of Dziga Vertov, 1922-1927 -- (Non)alignments and the new revolutionary man -- Esfir Shub, factography, and the new documentary historiography -- The object of revolutionary history: Santiago Alvarez's commemorative newsreels and chronicle documentaries, 1972-1974.