| A Sixth Part of the World | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Dziga Vertov |
| Produced by | Kultkino, Sovkino |
| Written by | Dziga Vertov |
| Cinematography | Mikhail Kaufman |
| Editing by | Elizaveta Svilova, Dziga Vertov |
| Distributed by | Sovkino |
| Release date(s) | December 31, 1926[1] (USSR) |
| Running time | 73 minutes |
| Country | Soviet Union |
| Language | Silent film Russian intertitles |
| Budget | SUR 80 000 |
A Sixth Part of the World (Russian: Шестая часть мира, Shestaya Chast Mira), sometimes referred to as The Sixth Part of the World, is a 1926 silent film directed by Dziga Vertov and produced by Kultkino (part of Sovkino). Through the travelogue format, it depicted the multitude of Soviet peoples in remote areas of USSR and detailed the entirety of the wealth of the Soviet land. Focusing on Soviets diversity, the film is in fact a call for unification in order to build a "complete socialist society". A mix between newsreel and found footage, Vertov edited sequences filmed by eight teams of kinoks (or kinokis) during their trips. According to Vertov, the film anticipates the coming of sound films by using a constant "word-radio-theme" in the intertitles.[2]Thanks to A Sixth Part of the World and his following feature The Eleventh Year (1928), Vertov matures his style in which he will excel in his most famous film Man with a Movie Camera (1929).
Contents |
In an interview for Kino magazine in August 1926, Vertov explained his intentions : "A Sixth Part of the World is more than a film, than what we have got used to understanding by the word ‘film.’ Whether it is a newsreel, a comedy, an artistic hit-film, A Sixth Part of the World is somewhere beyond the boundaries of these definitions; it is already the next stage after the concept of ‘cinema’ itself … Our slogan is: All citizens of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics from 10 to 100 years old must see this work. By the tenth anniversary of October there must not be a single Tungus who has not seen A Sixth Part of the World” (quoted in Barbara Wurm’s essay in the DVD booklet)[3]
At the beginning of 1918, Dziga Vertov was hired to edit the newsreel Kinonedelia ("Cine week") for the Moscow Cinema Committee. With no formal education in the editing science, he learnt to build coherent newsreel with a minimun of stock. Practising editing on different kind of short movies, Vertov began to theorize his own view on editing. It's in the hope to put in practice his theories that he formed in 1922 the first "kinoki" group ("Cine-Eyes") in which he began to issue the Kinopravda (Cine-truth) serie of films. At that time, Vertov published essays in specialized publications detailing his theories on cinema. In 1924, the Goskino film production set up a documentary section called Kultkino and Vertov was place in charge. That year, Goskino was replaced by Sovkino who continue to operate Kultkino section. In 1925, Gostorg the Central State Trading Organisation, was seeking a director for a film promoting internal trade and praising the merits of the new social order. A Sixth Part of the World will be produced by Kultkino within Sovkino.[4]
The film was well received by the Pravda. Praising the film, the periodical Sovetskii ekran stated: "These films reveal to us that Russian cinematography has found the correct path".[5] However, prominent critics criticized it. Critic Viktor Shklovsky accused the film of being fiction in his article "The Cine-Eyes and Intertitles". According to critic Ippolit Sokolov, the movie is "deformation of facts done by montage". The film remained mostly unexploited by official propaganda and Vertov was expelled from Sovkino production in 1927, being accused of exceeding more than three times the initial budget of 40 000 roubles (the film will cost actually twice this budget).[6]
Editions Filmmuseum has released the film in 2009 in a 2-disc set with the film The Eleventh Year (1928).[1]
|
|||||||||||||||