"Mentally organizing what has been seen": Dziga Vertov's diary of an expedition to Crimea, August 1925

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2317-4765.rus.2025.241576

Keywords:

Dziga Vertov, Soviet cinema, Documentary cinema, Diary, Creative processes, Ethnographic cinema, Silent film, A Sixth of the World

Abstract

In August of 1925, Dziga Vertov produced a handwritten report about a three-day visit to the Bakhchissaray district in Crimea. The analysis of this unpublished document, conserved in the “Notebooks and notepads” section of his fond in the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art (RGALI), allows us to glimpse at a rarely discussed stage of his creative process, defined by him as the “montage after an observation: mentally organizing what has been seen”. From his manuscript, the multiple interests at play during the making of A sixth of the world (1926) emerge – from the advertising of the commercial network managed by the Soviet State to the ethnographic study of the region – as well as the potential forms of cinematographic documentation considered by the filmmaker.

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Author Biography

  • Luis Felipe Gurgel Ribeiro Labaki, Universidade de São Paulo. Escola de Comunicações e Artes

    Cineasta, pesquisador e tradutor. Doutorando no Programa de Pós-Graduação em Meios e Processos Audiovisuais da ECA-USP, é mestre pelo mesmo programa (2016) e graduado no Curso Superior do Audiovisual da mesma escola (2013). Atualmente, desenvolve a pesquisa “Notas de um kinoc: os cadernos de trabalho e diários pessoais de Dziga Viértov” (Processo FAPESP nº2020/06336-4) sob orientação do Prof. Dr. Eduardo Victorio Morettin. Realizou doutorado-sanduíche (Processo Fapesp nº2023/05116-9) na Unité Mixte de Recherche Thalim (CNRS – ENS – Sorbonne Nouvelle), em Paris, supervisionado por Valérie Pozner. Entre outros trabalhos, foi o organizador, tradutor e autor das notas de Cine-Olho: manifestos, projetos e escritos, coletânea de textos de Dziga Viértov (Editora 34, 2022).

References

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KAUFMAN, Mikhail. S apparátom v stiép (Iz dnevniká operátora). Soviétski Ekrán, nº23, 1º de setembro de 1925.

KHERSSÓNSKI, Khrisanf. Siômka v Krimú (‘Piésn na kámnie’). Kino-Jurnal A.R.K, 1925, nº6-7, p.29.

KUDÍNOV, Borís. Posviaschénie v kinorazviédtchiki. In: VIÉRTOVA-SVÍLOVA, E. I. e VINOGRÁDOVA, A. L. (orgs.). Dziga Viértov v vospominániakh sovremiénnikov (Moscou: Iskússtvo, 1976), p.112-121.

LABAKI, Luis Felipe Gurgel Ribeiro. O homem com a câmera (1929) como um filme diário. Galáxia (São Paulo, online). Nº46, 2021.

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VIÉRTOV, Dziga. Predvarítelnaia skhiêma rabót po kartíne Gostorg. In: VIÉRTOV, Dziga; DERIÁBIN, Aleksándr (org.). Dziga Viértov. Iz Nasliêdia. Tom 1: Dramaturguítcheskie Ópyty. Moscou: Eizenchtein-Tsentr, 2004, p.103-107.

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VIÉRTOV, Dziga. Cine-Olho. In: VIÉRTOV, Dziga; LABAKI, Luis Felipe (org.). Cine-Olho: manifestos, projetos e outros escritos. Editora 34, 2022, p.157-181.

VIÉRTOV, Dziga. [Sobre minha demissão]. In: op. cit., p.254-261.

VIÉRTOV, Dziga. Sobre a organização de um laboratório criativo – proposta do autor-diretor D. Viértov. In: op. cit., 459-466.

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Published

2025-11-30

Issue

Vol. 16 No. 29 (2025): Cinema russo e soviético: do império aos nossos dias

Section

Dossiê

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Copyright (c) 2025 Luis Felipe Gurgel Ribeiro Labaki

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How to Cite

Labaki, L. F. G. R. (2025). "Mentally organizing what has been seen": Dziga Vertov’s diary of an expedition to Crimea, August 1925. RUS (Sao Paulo), 16(29), 38-62. https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2317-4765.rus.2025.241576

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