Aleksandr Medvedkin

A documentary on Soviet filmmaker Aleksandr Medvedkin, examining his tumultuous career, the rediscovery of his masterpiece Happiness, and Russia's struggles over the course of the 20th Century.

This half-hour documentary by Chris Marker explores Aleksandr Medvedkin’s 1930s “Cine-Train,” a mobile film studio equipped with cameras, editing rooms, animation stations, and a laboratory. Traveling across the Soviet countryside, the train’s crew documented agricultural and industrial life—from Ukrainian harvests to southern steelworks—while living and working in cramped shared quarters.

A film about the development of virgin and fallow lands in Siberia, Kazakhstan, and the Volga region.

A comedy about a naive young architect and his wild designs for a “New Moscow.” The Soviet censors weren't at all amused and shelved it.

A competition between milkmaids turns into magic duel as one of them hires a witch to perform a milking ritual, while a young girl discovers a talent to communicate with cows. Only her dreams are miles away, as she's in love.

The director's reflections on the modern politics of the Reagan administration.

A film about the development of virgin and fallow lands in Siberia, Kazakhstan, and the Volga region.

A comedy about a naive young architect and his wild designs for a “New Moscow.” The Soviet censors weren't at all amused and shelved it.

A comedy about a naive young architect and his wild designs for a “New Moscow.” The Soviet censors weren't at all amused and shelved it.

A competition between milkmaids turns into magic duel as one of them hires a witch to perform a milking ritual, while a young girl discovers a talent to communicate with cows. Only her dreams are miles away, as she's in love.

A competition between milkmaids turns into magic duel as one of them hires a witch to perform a milking ritual, while a young girl discovers a talent to communicate with cows. Only her dreams are miles away, as she's in love.

The director's reflections on the modern politics of the Reagan administration.

The director's reflections on the modern politics of the Reagan administration.

No synopsis available yet.

A hapless loser (with the surname of Loser) undergoes misadventures with avaracious clergy, a tired horse, and a walking granary (among other things) on his road to collectivized happiness.

A hapless loser (with the surname of Loser) undergoes misadventures with avaracious clergy, a tired horse, and a walking granary (among other things) on his road to collectivized happiness.

The first of what became a popular genre of wartime 'film-concerts', consisting of eight musical numbers, strung together by a loose plot. It shows soldiers leaving their village for the front; in their absence, the desolate but resolute young women of the village assume responsibility for the business of the farm

The first of what became a popular genre of wartime 'film-concerts', consisting of eight musical numbers, strung together by a loose plot. It shows soldiers leaving their village for the front; in their absence, the desolate but resolute young women of the village assume responsibility for the business of the farm

A comedy about Krushchev's 'Virgin Lands' project, to transform the barren and inhospitable spaces of the vast Soviet Union into fertile agricultural plains. A classically Socialist-Realist narrative of an individual's 're-education'. Zhenia, a hapless idler, arrives with a band of enthusiastic young Konsomol members to build a new town in the steppe. Although his dream, like that of all the young participants, is 'to become a tractor driver and a hero', he isn't prepared to work for the honour.

A comedy about Krushchev's 'Virgin Lands' project, to transform the barren and inhospitable spaces of the vast Soviet Union into fertile agricultural plains. A classically Socialist-Realist narrative of an individual's 're-education'. Zhenia, a hapless idler, arrives with a band of enthusiastic young Konsomol members to build a new town in the steppe. Although his dream, like that of all the young participants, is 'to become a tractor driver and a hero', he isn't prepared to work for the honour.

At the eve of the Second World War, one of the first color films, which has preserved for us the parade of athletes, which was held in 1939 on Red Square in Moscow.

Lazy or incompetent peasants try to malinger and wriggle their way out of duties at the Kolkhoz.

No synopsis available yet.

A film report produced on Aleksandr Medvedkin's Kino-train, addressing the problems of living conditions in the October Mine in the Krivoi Rog region - a mine that, according to Medvedkin, was so improved by the experience of the kino-train that it subsequently became the most successful mine in the region.

Satire directed at the American humanitarian initiative launched in Europe in 1948 and mostly known as the Marshall Plan. Soviet Union famously rejected the offer despite suffering from 1946-1947 major famine.

The only surviving film from the first trip of Aleksandr Medvedkin's Kinopoezd (film train). A 'film-newspaper' demonstrating one key aspect of the train's work: the desire to encourage shame. In it, poor workers are named and shamed outright and local leaders are filmed at a lengthy and ill-focused meeting, ignoring the urgent demands of the work that surround them.

After the liberation of the Kuban by the Soviet Army troops, farmers return home and begin to restore the destroyed economy. Under the leadership of the young chairman, Nadiezdha Pritulyak, growers are working with great enthusiasm.

A film satire that exposes incompetence and bureaucracy. The plot revolves around the adventures of Ivan Ivanovich Duren, the head of a large construction project. The film is lost.

A film satire that exposes incompetence and bureaucracy. The plot revolves around the adventures of Ivan Ivanovich Duren, the head of a large construction project. The film is lost.

Taking the viewer on a tour through several African nations and using the full range of agit-prop aesthetics in its imagery, didactic voice-over and melodramatic soundtrack, Law of Baseness offers a scathing anti-colonialist and anti-capitalist indictment of the Western world.

Taking the viewer on a tour through several African nations and using the full range of agit-prop aesthetics in its imagery, didactic voice-over and melodramatic soundtrack, Law of Baseness offers a scathing anti-colonialist and anti-capitalist indictment of the Western world.

A lazy farmer Tit takes the only job he can do: being a scarecrow in a field. Original movie is lost but in 2000 it was reconstructed by Nikolay Izvolov based on Medvedkin's script and drawings.

No synopsis available yet.

About the difficult political situation in the world related to the arms race.

About the difficult political situation in the world related to the arms race.

About the huge international assistance that the USSR provided to China.

An extraordinary document from one of the Cold War's bitterest conflicts - between the Soviet Union and Communist China - this film spares no quarter in its indictment of Maoist evils and misrule.

An extraordinary document from one of the Cold War's bitterest conflicts - between the Soviet Union and Communist China - this film spares no quarter in its indictment of Maoist evils and misrule.

Film by Aleksandr Medvekin to a metonymic Chinese friend, advocating against Mao and the Ussuri River Skirmish.

Film by Aleksandr Medvekin to a metonymic Chinese friend, advocating against Mao and the Ussuri River Skirmish.

Agitfilm. The film is lost.

The eleven films that survived from the series of films shot, edited, and shown from three custom railway cars travelling throughout the Soviet Union from 1932 to 1935. A project by Alexandr Medvedkin, though he isn't mentioned in the titles. The cars were full of film prints, editing tables, actors. Films were made in one day: edited at night and the next day shown to the people who participated in it.

A short film made by Medvedkin, documenting the lack of hygiene in the Red Army.

A full-length documentary film directed by Alexander Medvedkin tells about the nature of Maoism, the events in China in the 1960s and early 1970s

A full-length documentary film directed by Alexander Medvedkin tells about the nature of Maoism, the events in China in the 1960s and early 1970s