Naum Kleiman

An exploration of 20th century Russia, following the fusing of the Party and the state after the Russian Civil War, which opened the doors to corruption, resulting in the exiling of the left and right opposition. Described using a combination of historical settings, biographies and masterpieces from Russian avant-garde artists, composers and writers from this period in history.

A portrait of Naum Kleiman — film scholar, historian, and sage. In conversation with him, a vast cultural landscape unfolds, where Pushkin meets Godard, Sokurov, Dionysius, Eisenstein, Snyders, Glass, Ozu, and many others. Kleiman reveals the simplicity of mystery, and in doing so, reveals himself.

A cineastic journey into the world of Naum Kleiman, one of the most important intellectuals in Russia today. Naum Kleiman, an internationally acclaimed Eisenstein specialist, is the director of the „Musey Kino“, Moscow’s museum of cinema. Since 1989, the „Musey Kino“, has shown previously banned classics of world cinema and Soviet films. Many saw the „Musey Kino“, as Moscow ́s most important intellectual forum. In 2005, the Moscow municipality sold the „Musey Kino’s“ building and it became homeless. In October 2014, the Russian Minister of Culture fired Naum Kleiman as director. In protest, his entire team handed in their resignations. Scenes from iconic movies and interviews with Muscovites of different ages and social backgrounds form a documentary film collage which mirrors Russian reality today.

A documentary film about the oldest film school in the world, created to mark the centenary of VGIK.

A documentary by writer and filmmaker Daniel Bird about the making of Sergei Parajanov's 'The Colour of Pomegranates'.

A documentary study of the circumstances and course of the drama that played out in the second half of the 30s around the project of creating "Soviet Hollywood" in the USSR - the center of the film industry in the image and likeness of the American "dream factory". Dramas in which human characters, ideological conflicts, and the spirit of the era were vividly manifested…

Travelogue of two film historians Nikolay Izvolov and Sergey Kapterev who visit world film archives around the globe in search of a lost sound version of one famous Soviet cartoon. It's "The Post" made by Mikhail Tsekhanovsky in 1929 and based on a poem by Samuil Marshak. At first "The Post" has been released in a silent form and later Tsekhanovsky remade it with experimental music and narration by Daniil Kharms. At that moment it was the first Soviet sound cartoon and it was a success all over the world. Russian film studies consider "The Post" to be of great importance and artistic value but unfortunately it's still lost. Only the silent version and the 1964 remake are still known and available.

Documentary detailing the extensive number of shots long lost from constant film re-cutting of 1925's great silent cinema classic Battleship Potemkin in the last 80 years, and how many of those shots have been returned.

Biography of cinematographer Andrey Nikolaevich Moskvin.

Inaugurated by Stalin in 1931 in Moscow, MOSFILM is the largest movie studio in Europe. The most famous Russian directors shoot and edit here, and the 5000 employees who work on the gigantic sets contribute to the glory and radiance of Soviet cinema. Some masterpieces still remain vivid in our minds. Via an inventory of these studios and Russian cinema, the film recounts the history of a culture and a country traversed by a multitude of political upheavals.

A documentary biography of Russia's greatest filmmaker.

A reconstruction of the uncut prologue of Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible, the scene with the gunners Foma and Erema and a fragment from the unfinished part 3 featuring the German knight Heinrich von Staden. In between stills and newsreel footage. Over a commentary written and spoken by Naum Kleiman. The Criterion DVD extra ends at 33 min, the longer version has added fragments of parts 1 and 2 at the end.

Documentary about Anton Chekhov and his descendants in Moscow. Vera Tschechowa, who is the great-grandniece of the poet and writer, meets with family members, writers, and theater professionals. Past and present merge into a poetic journey of discovery into a country that, until then, had been little known in the realm of artistic sensibilities.