A Sixth Part of the World
Encyclopedia
A Sixth Part of the World , sometimes referred to as The Sixth Part of the World, is a 1926 silent film
directed by Dziga Vertov
and produced by Kultkino and Sovkino
. Through the travelogue
format, it depicted the multitude of Soviet peoples in remote areas of USSR and detailed the entirety of the wealth of the Soviet land. Focusing on Soviets diversity, the film is in fact a call for unification in order to build a "complete socialist society". A mix between newsreel
and found footage
, Vertov edited sequences filmed by eight teams of kinoks
(or kinokis) during their trips. According to Vertov, the film anticipates the coming of sound films by using a constant "word-radio-theme" in the intertitles.Thanks to A Sixth Part of the World and his following feature The Eleventh Year (1928), Vertov matures his style in which he will excel in his most famous film Man with a Movie Camera
(1929).
.
production in 1927, being accused of exceeding more than three times the initial budget of 40 000 roubles (the film will cost actually twice this budget).
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
directed by Dziga Vertov
Dziga Vertov
David Abelevich Kaufman , better known by his pseudonym Dziga Vertov , was a Soviet pioneer documentary film, newsreel director and cinema theorist...
and produced by Kultkino and Sovkino
Sovkino
Sovkino was a studio in what now is Ukraine. It was built to compete with Disney over the market of animated movies in the 1930s.Sovkino was also a name of Lenfilm in 1926—1930....
. Through the travelogue
Travel documentary
A travel documentary is a documentary film or television program that describes travel in general or tourist attractions in a non-commercial way....
format, it depicted the multitude of Soviet peoples in remote areas of USSR and detailed the entirety of the wealth of the Soviet land. Focusing on Soviets diversity, the film is in fact a call for unification in order to build a "complete socialist society". A mix between newsreel
Newsreel
A newsreel was a form of short documentary film prevalent in the first half of the 20th century, regularly released in a public presentation place and containing filmed news stories and items of topical interest. It was a source of news, current affairs and entertainment for millions of moviegoers...
and found footage
Found footage
Found footage is a filmmaking term which describes a method of compiling films partly or entirely of footage which has not been created by the filmmaker, and changing its meaning by placing it in a new context. It should not be mistaken for documentary or compilation films. It is also not to be...
, Vertov edited sequences filmed by eight teams of kinoks
Kinoks
The Kinoks were a collective of Soviet filmmakers in 1920s Russia, based most notably around film editor Dziga Vertov. In 1919 Vertov and his future wife, the talented film editor Elisaveta Svilova, plus several other young filmmakers created a group called Kinoks...
(or kinokis) during their trips. According to Vertov, the film anticipates the coming of sound films by using a constant "word-radio-theme" in the intertitles.Thanks to A Sixth Part of the World and his following feature The Eleventh Year (1928), Vertov matures his style in which he will excel in his most famous film Man with a Movie Camera
Man with a Movie Camera
Man with a Movie Camera , sometimes called The Man with the Movie Camera, The Man with a Camera, The Man With the Kinocamera, or Living Russia is an experimental 1929 silent documentary film, with no story and no actors, by Russian director Dziga Vertov, edited by his wife Elizaveta...
(1929).
Vertov's intentions
In an interview for Kino magazine in August 1926, Vertov explained his intentions : "A Sixth Part of the World is more than a film, than what we have got used to understanding by the word ‘film.’ Whether it is a newsreel, a comedy, an artistic hit-film, A Sixth Part of the World is somewhere beyond the boundaries of these definitions; it is already the next stage after the concept of ‘cinema’ itself … Our slogan is: All citizens of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics from 10 to 100 years old must see this work. By the tenth anniversary of October there must not be a single Tungus who has not seen A Sixth Part of the World” (quoted in Barbara Wurm’s essay in the DVD booklet)Production
At the beginning of 1918, Dziga Vertov was hired to edit the newsreel Kinonedelia ("Cine week") for the Moscow Cinema Committee. With no formal education in the editing science, he learnt to build coherent newsreel with a minimun of stock. Practising editing on different kind of short movies, Vertov began to theorize his own view on editing. It's in the hope to put in practice his theories that he formed in 1922 the first "kinoki" group ("Cine-Eyes") in which he began to issue the Kinopravda (Cine-truth) serie of films. At that time, Vertov published essays in specialized publications detailing his theories on cinema. In 1924, the Goskino film production set up a documentary section called Kultkino and Vertov was place in charge. In 1925, Gostorg the Central State Trading Organisation, was seeking a director for a film promoting internal trade and praising the merits of the new social order. A Sixth Part of the World will be a coproduction between Kultkino and SovkinoSovkino
Sovkino was a studio in what now is Ukraine. It was built to compete with Disney over the market of animated movies in the 1930s.Sovkino was also a name of Lenfilm in 1926—1930....
.
Reception
The film was well received by the Pravda. Praising the film, the periodical Sovetskii ekran stated: "These films reveal to us that Russian cinematography has found the correct path". However, prominent critics criticized it. Critic Viktor Shklovsky accused the film of being fiction in his article "The Cine-Eyes and Intertitles". According to critic Ippolit Sokolov, the movie is "deformation of facts done by montage". The film remained mostly unexploited by official propaganda and Vertov was expelled from SovkinoSovkino
Sovkino was a studio in what now is Ukraine. It was built to compete with Disney over the market of animated movies in the 1930s.Sovkino was also a name of Lenfilm in 1926—1930....
production in 1927, being accused of exceeding more than three times the initial budget of 40 000 roubles (the film will cost actually twice this budget).
DVD Release
Editions Filmmuseum has released the film in 2009 in a 2-disc set with the film The Eleventh Year (1928).[1External links
- A Sixth Part of the World at Mubi
- View Online on Google VideoGoogle VideoGoogle Videos is a video search engine, and formerly a free video sharing website, from Google Inc. Before removing user-uploaded content, the service allowed selected videos to be remotely embedded on other websites and provided the necessary HTML code alongside the media, similar to YouTube...
(Notes: bad quality video with esperanto subtitles)