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Financial support for this book came from a variety of sources. My travel, research, and writing was supported by fellowships and grants from the graduate school and Center for International and Comparative Studies (CICS) at Northwestern University as well as by a summer Mellon Fellowship from the Russian and East European Institute (REEI) at Indiana University. In addition, the Department of Communication and Culture (CMCL) at Indiana University provided me a semester’s leave to write. Michael Chanan discussed Cuban (and Soviet) cinema with me at length, constantly responding to my queries, and helped establish my contacts in Havana. Those in Cuba with whom I worked and played and whom I would like to thank are Santiago Álvarez’s widow, Lazara Herera ; my translator, Vanessa Pedrosa; my social coordinator, Julia Cooke; Nelson Rodrigues; Pepin Rodriguez; Mario Piedra; Susan Lord; and my savior and hero, Maria Caridad Cumana. John Hess was thoughtful in his responses to my questions, and I thank him for his suggestions. On the Soviet side, I would like to thank Ilya Kutik, Richard Taylor , Graham Roberts, Barbara Wurm, John MacKay, Masha Salazkina, and Seth Feldman for their work and correspondence. A special note of thanks goes to Yuri Tsivian, whose pragmatic and scholarly advice helped an earlier version of this work immensely and whose thinking continues to shape my own. Yuri curated the Vertov program at the 23rd Pordenone Silent Film Festival, making available the largest collection of Vertov’s newsreels and silent features ever assembled. His accompanying collection of Vertov-related documents, Lines of Resistance, played no small part in making this and other studies of Vertov possible. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS x Acknowledgments x My research at the Österreichisches Filmmuseum in Vienna was supported by Michael Loebenstein, Dominik Tschütscher, and Alex Horwath . They provided me research copies of almost all of Vertov’s and Shub’s silent films and were thoughtful colleagues and friends. I would like to thank two readers, Chuck Kleinhans and Scott Curtis , each of whom—though very differently—provided a model of academic scholarship and teaching that shapes my own today. I would also like to thank Andrew Wachtel, a wonderful mentor and friend. Mimi White always seemed to know what I needed, personally and intellectually , well before I did. She kept me focused while gently directing me to more fruitful areas of inquiry. My father-in-law, Edward Brynn, deserves special recognition. Professor Brynn read every word of this book, going well beyond his apparent copyediting duties to offer substantive suggestions about the structure and focus of the argument. I want to thank both him and his wife, Jane, for their unconditional support throughout this process. A number of people at Indiana University Press deserve thanks. Janet Rabinowitch, Jane Kupersmith, Raina Polivka, and Julie Bush have offered countless insights and demonstrated exceptional professionalism . I’m happy to be a part of what they are building. I am extraordinarily fortunate to have the colleagues I do in CMCL at Indiana University. Joan Hawkins, Barb Klinger, Greg Waller, Alex Doty, Ted Striphas, Stephanie DeBoer, Michael Kaplan, and my occasional collaborator Ilana Gershon have, in various ways, enriched this book. I especially thank Ilana, who read a large chunk of this work, and Michael , who, in between Lionel Messi and Christiano Ronaldo exegeses, offered a number of critical directions I adopted. Michael Booth has been a wonderful friend and supporter during the writing of this book. His insights are sprinkled throughout. And Mark Kligerman provided a number of helpful comments early in the process. Sara Friedman, Gardner Bovingdon, Sarah Knott, and Konstantin Dierks have all been amazing friends in Bloomington. In addition to their warm hospitality, I would like to thank Kon for his editorial work and Gardner, who not only read it all but put up with me throughout the process (no small task, I can assure). 53.93] Project MUSE (2024-04-26 14:41 GMT) xi Acknowledgments Dan Morgan has read multiple versions of every chapter of this book, having been involved from the outset. Our conversations on film theory and film history have been invaluable. I cannot thank him enough for his extraordinary generosity. I only wish I were an ace southpaw for the Red Sox and could show my thanks every five days. I want to thank my family—Gloria Caplan, Barry Malitsky, Jahna Gregory, Rodd Malitsky, and Denny Palmer. My son, Asher, made stepping away from Soviet and Cuban nonfiction film usually the best part of my day. I...

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