MULTIAGITPROP: Ukrainian Silent Animation Anthology of 1920–1930
Thursday, 29. 9. 2022 at 21.00 / Vetrinj mansion, courtyard
Compilation organized by the researches from the Dovzhenko Center in Kyiv
Live-music by Kovács-Németh&Németh-Lazarus+Vajda (Hungary)
Kovács-Németh&Németh-Lazarus+Vajda is a group of frequently collaborating Hungarian musicians who share a passion for cinematic art-house. Members of this spontaneously called ensemble play regularly in their own bands and develop various projects, among them AZNAP Projekt and Sick Picnic. They also organize the Art Camp at the Szőnyi Tábor (location: Zebegény) run by The Istvan Szonyi Circle of Friends and Kino Garden.
Réka Kovács – saxophonist, festival organiser
Zsófa Nóra Németh – flutist, ethnographer
Balázs Kristóf Németh – drummer, motion picture artist
Stanislaw Lazarus – musician, film esthetics researcher
Bence Vajda – pianist
1.
Dniprelstan / Дніпрельстан
Yevhen Makarov (VUFKU)
1927, USSR (Ukraine), 5’
This educational short gives a popular account of the causes and undoubted benefits of the Dneprostroi Dam construction, keeping in mind Lenin’s words: “Communism is Soviet power plus the electrification of the whole country.”
02.
(trailer) Sold Appetite / (анонс фильма) Проданий апетит
Yevhen Makarov (presumably) (VUFKU)
1927, USSR (Ukraine), 2’30’’
Based on the pamphlet by Paul Lafargue, the trailer shows an anti-capitalist story of a poor bus driver (played by Amvrosii Buchma, a prominent Ukrainian actor) who has sold his stomach to a rich man. The full film is considered lost.
03.
State Loan / Державна позика
Director unknown (VUFKU)
1928, USSR (Ukraine), 1’
Short animation ad trying to persuade Soviet Union residents to put their salaries into the State Bank.
04.
A Tale of General Disarmament / Казка про загальне роззброєння
M. Veitsman (VUFKU)
1929, USSR (Ukraine), 6’
Sharp satire about imperialist reality and its predatory nature was a popular genre of Soviet propaganda.
05.
Absentee / Прогульник
Roytman (VUFKU)
1929, USSR (Ukraine), 2’30’’
For the Soviet system, based on the sacralization of labor, an absentee was not only a social outcast, but also an infernal heretic, so not only his fellow Soviet citizens but also conscious Soviet animals condemned him.
06.
Save Paper / Бережіть папір
Roytman (VUFKU)
1929, USSR (Ukraine), 3’30’’
Performing a Kafkaesque scenario, this film encourages the rejection of excessive paperwork, elimination of useless bureaucracy, optimisation of industrial production, and usage of recycling technologies.
07.
The USSR Palace of Arts / Палац Мистецтв СРСР
Nikolai Khodataev (presumably)
1930, USSR, 3'30''
Art in the USSR was never an autonomous sphere. The Soviet aesthetic project was not just a superstructure, it also created a new, utopian dimension of Soviet reality.
08.
(trailer) The Eleventh Year / (анонс фильма) Одинадцятий
Yevhen Makarov (presumably) (VUFKU)
1929, USSR (Ukraine), 2'10''
A trailer for Dziga Vertov’s The Eleventh Year, his first film made in Ukraine which glorified the achievements of the First Five-Year Plan and the tenth anniversary of Socialist rule. Trailer made in collaboration with Vertov was discovered in the mid-1990s.