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Esfir Shub

Esfir Shub

Editor, Director, Writer

Born March 16, 1894 in Surazh, Russian Empire

Died September 21, 1959

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Biography

Esfir Shub, also referred to as Esther Il'inichna Shub, was a pioneering Soviet filmmaker and editor in both the mainstream and documentary fields. She was one of few women to play a significant role behind the scenes in the Soviet film industry. She is best known for her trilogy of films, Fall of the Romanov Dynasty (1927), The Great Road (1927), and The Russia of Nicholas II and Leo Tolstoy (1928). Shub is credited as the creator of compilation film.

Esfir Shub was born into a family of landowners. She studied literature in Moscow, but after Revolution she began to attend the classes at the Institute for Women's Higher Education and then got a job as a 'theater officer' at the State Commissariat of Education. In the theatre she worked in collaboration with the famous avant-garde director Meyerhold and the poet Mayakovsky, who was one of her friends.

Shub joined the Goskino film company and met Dziga Vertov. Their professional friendship was lifelong, but stormy. Shub shared his belief in film's intrinsic ability to reveal aspects of reality not visible to the naked eye, but she became engaged more in the interpretation of the historical world than in only contemporary matters.

First Shub worked as a re-editor of foreign films for Soviet distribution. In 1927 (the tenth anniversary of Revolution) she made her first documentary film The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty (1927). This film was the first part of the trilogy, which also consists of The Great Road (1927) and Lev Tolstoy and the Russia of Nicolai II (1928). In the process of making the trilogy, Shub had to contend with not only an overwhelming volume of material but also the problem of locating relevant footage. She often found that valuable documents of the pre-war period had been sold abroad or had been badly damaged in ill-equipped newsreel archives. Shub compensated the lack of material by using newly shot footage. Her films derive much of their power from this technique of providing a contemporary context for archival footage. Thus, Shub created the absolutely new genre 'historical compilation film'. She later claimed she just wanted to create 'editorialized newsreels'.

The critics and colleagues admired Shub's work, because she found a middle path between narrative and documentary forms. Sovkino denied her authorial rights for her trilogy claiming that she was just an editor. However, in 1935 Shub was awarded the title Honored Artist of the Republic.

In the beginning of the forties she collaborated with Vsevolod Pudovkin on the successful Twenty Years of Soviet Cinema (1940). Then she left Goskino to become chief editor of the 'News of the Day' at the central studio for documentary film in Moscow. Most of her later years were confined to editing duties. Shub was definitely the most prominent Soviet woman filmmaker of her generation.

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Filmography

Actor

1

After the Facts Poster

After the Facts Documentary2018Self

Editor

18

Type

Year

Ot chistogo serdtsa Poster

Ot chistogo serdtsa Short Film1949

On the Other Side of the Araks Poster

On the Other Side of the Araks Documentary1947

K prebyvaniyu v Moskve uchastnikov sessii ispolkoma mezhdunarodnoiy demokraticheskoy federatsii zhenshchin Documentary1946

Native Land Poster

Native Land Documentary1942

Fascism Will Be Defeated Poster

Fascism Will Be Defeated Documentary1941

Spain Documentary1939

Country of the Soviet Poster

Country of the Soviet Documentary1937

Turkey at the Turning Point Documentary1937

The Metro by Night Documentary1934

The Komsomol - Sponsor of Electrification Poster

The Komsomol - Sponsor of Electrification Documentary1932

Today Documentary1929

Lev Tolstoy and the Russia of Nicolai II Poster

Lev Tolstoy and the Russia of Nicolai II Feature Film1928

Gospoda Skotininy Poster

Gospoda Skotininy Feature Film1927

Prostitutka Poster

Prostitutka Feature Film1927

The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty Poster

The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty Documentary1927

The Great Road Poster

The Great Road Feature Film1927

Abrek Zaur Poster

Abrek Zaur Feature Film1926

The Wings of a Serf Poster

The Wings of a Serf Feature Film1926

Director

16

Type

Year

Ot chistogo serdtsa Poster

Ot chistogo serdtsa Short Film1949

On the Other Side of the Araks Poster

On the Other Side of the Araks Documentary1947

K prebyvaniyu v Moskve uchastnikov sessii ispolkoma mezhdunarodnoiy demokraticheskoy federatsii zhenshchin Documentary1946

The Smolensk Trial Short Film1946

Native Land Poster

Native Land Documentary1942

Fascism Will Be Defeated Poster

Fascism Will Be Defeated Documentary1941

Twenty Years of Soviet Cinema Documentary1940

Spain Documentary1939

Country of the Soviet Poster

Country of the Soviet Documentary1937

Turkey at the Turning Point Documentary1937

The Metro by Night Documentary1934

The Komsomol - Sponsor of Electrification Poster

The Komsomol - Sponsor of Electrification Documentary1932

Today Documentary1929

Lev Tolstoy and the Russia of Nicolai II Poster

Lev Tolstoy and the Russia of Nicolai II Feature Film1928

The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty Poster

The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty Documentary1927

The Great Road Poster

The Great Road Feature Film1927

Writer

15

Type

Year

Ot chistogo serdtsa Poster

Ot chistogo serdtsa Short Film1949

On the Other Side of the Araks Poster

On the Other Side of the Araks Documentary1947

K prebyvaniyu v Moskve uchastnikov sessii ispolkoma mezhdunarodnoiy demokraticheskoy federatsii zhenshchin Documentary1946

The Smolensk Trial Short Film1946

Native Land Poster

Native Land Documentary1942

Fascism Will Be Defeated Poster

Fascism Will Be Defeated Documentary1941

Twenty Years of Soviet Cinema Documentary1940

Country of the Soviet Poster

Country of the Soviet Documentary1937

Turkey at the Turning Point Documentary1937

The Metro by Night Documentary1934

The Komsomol - Sponsor of Electrification Poster

The Komsomol - Sponsor of Electrification Documentary1932

Today Documentary1929

Lev Tolstoy and the Russia of Nicolai II Poster

Lev Tolstoy and the Russia of Nicolai II Feature Film1928

The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty Poster

The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty Documentary1927

The Great Road Poster

The Great Road Feature Film1927

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