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[UKRAINIAN CINEMA EARLY YEARS] Z mynuloho kino na Ukraini, 1896 – 1917 [i.e. On the Past of Cinema in Ukraine, 1896 – 1917]

H(eorhyi) Zhurov, (Maksym Rylskyi, (ed)).

Item #2550

Kyiv: Vydavnytstvo Akademii Nauk Ukrainskoi RSR, 1959. 137, [3] p., ill. Octavo (20 x 13,5 cm). Publisher’s softcover and dust jacket. In Ukrainian. One of 2000 copies. Very good condition. Both the publisher’s paper cover and the dust jacket are preserved. Bumped corners. Spine and back show minor stains. Numbers in pencil on the inside of the back cover.

Heorhyi Zhurov (190? – 1988) was one of few professional Ukrainian film historians of mid-XXth century. Completing his cinematographic education in 1931 in Kiev, Zhurov later additionally attained a respected VGIK degree. While Zhurov had hands-on set experience during his early formative years as a cinematographer specialised in sound design, he ended up spending close to 30 years researching Ukrainian cinema. Though relatively short, this study is the first ever research on an obscure pre-revolutionary period of national cinematography. Its importance is emphasised by the fact that Z mynuloho kino na Ukraini was prepared and printed by the Institute of Art Studies, Folklore and Ethnology within the UkSSR Academy of Sciences. The Institute employed Zhurov as a senior researcher from 1947. The book reviews development of technical, ideological and professional areas of Ukrainian cinema of a period not studied up to this work. Zhurov supports his thesis of early development of progressive national cinematography. Such a view helps to propel post-Stalinist idea of locality and rooting the origins of inspiration in the national culture rather than in the marxist-leninist ideology popularity. Of course, like almost any book on national art of the post-1917 USSR, it is salted with propaganda. But as it's a local edition in a national language, it does so to a lesser degree compared to Moscow books of the era. Stalin’s death and the Thaw contributed to a decade of relative freedom in studying the national cultural heritage across the republics. According to Zhurov (and respected by all modern studies) the earliest cinematographic documents in history of Russia and modern Ukraine were shot by Kharkiv-based photographer Alfred Fedetsky (1857 – 1902) in 1896. Those were chronicles. The second important point in the development of national cinema were films by director of photography turned film producer Danylo Sakhnenko. He was responsible for the first national staged and simultaneously first historical film Zaporizka Sich premiered in Jan 1912. Local production was behind such metropolitan figures like Aleksandr Khanzhonkov, but nevertheless it showed rapid development of storytelling and artistic means. Early important Ukrainian films noted in the book are theatrical stagings by Mykola Sadovskyi in 1911. The book is not shy of describing even local Jewish production and stagings. The text is supplemented by a chronological 1896 – 1917 list of known films and a surprisingly extensive pre-revolutionary register of dozens of Ukrainian periodicals covering film and cinema of the region back during the early 1910’s. The book’s editor, Maksym Rylskyi (1895 – 1964), was a prominent Ukrainian poet and academic. He led the Ukrainian Writer’s Union and Institute of Art Studies, Folklore and Ethnology.

Rarity.

WorldCat locates 10 copies with 7 copies in North America. Of them, 4 in the US: NYPL, University of Southern California, Queens Public Library, Getty Library. And 3 in Canada: University of Toronto, Toronto Public Library, University of Alberta. KVK finds additional copies in. The National Library of Ukraine also holds a copy.

Price: $350.00