Kino Pravda

[Ignatieff]

Does anyone know where I might get a DVD copy of any of these early Bolshevik 'news' reels?  I have just visited the superb 'Defining Constructivism: Rodchenko and Popova' exhibition at the Tate Modern in London, where they were showing a corker involving Red Guards ambushing some White counter-revolutionaries (all bollocks of course).  Apparently they thought normal cinemas as too bourgoise, and therefore showed the films on bedsheets in the streets!  I fancy doing something similar for the Leagues next outing this August!  I cannot recommend the exhibition enough for anyone interested in our period.  Masses of great Bolshevik posters from the revolution and Civil War (my favourite was for 'Red October Cookies'), and some fantastic period books (check out 'Red Star over Russia' by David King and some of the awesome paint schemes used on armoured trains)...anyway, any hints and leads from our wise heads on 'Kino Pravda' (literally 'cinema truth')

p.s. great to have the forum back!

[area23]

No idea, but it sounds great!

I do remember a great documentary about a revolutionary propaganda train that toured all over Russia showing films wherever they stopped. They had wagons with avant-garde artist studios and lavishly painted on the outside.

IIRC in the end the project was blocked by the central committee or whatever, as they were too enthousiastic and anarchic for the bolshevik party line.

[fastolfrus]

You could always ask the Tate where they got theirs from, or try the Russian Embassy education office.

[Ignatieff]

Thanks chaps

I asked the Tate, theirs was from the Bauhaus museum and was a one off.  Good suggestions re the Russian embassy though.

I did pick up a copy of Eisenstein's 'October 1917', which will be showing on a bedsheet near me this summer!