The Cine Technician (1943 - 1945)

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March— April, 1943 THE C I NE TE C H N IC I A N 37 Uchitel, Fomin, Stradin and others did not cease filming for a minute. In rigorous frosts, under fierce bombing, and incessant shelling, under conditions of blockade and hunger, they created for future history truly priceless cine-documents of the life and struggle of the hero-city. Like all Leningraders, the cameramen received a meagre ration of bread, they were emaciated and could hardly walk, but each day they plodded to the city carrying heavy tins of film and kept constantly taking shots. We are grateful to them for having preserved for us the inimitable features of proud, indomitable and plucky Leningrad, for having perpetuated the unforgettable scenes of the winter of 1941-42. They filmed in the factories, on the streets and in the advanced front lines. The episodes they filmed now show the whole world what the Soviet people are capable of, cherishing deep faith in their victory and profound hatred of the enemy, and, in the name of this faith and hatred, • ready for all privations and exploits. At Stalingrad, too, cameramen worked filming the fierce battles wherein the glorious city's defenders mauled the German divisions, and where, for every foot, for every inch of soil, Hitler paid with the lives of thousands of his soldiers. Stalingrad will shortly be shown in Britain. One Day of the Soviet War depicts an ordinary day in this country which at the call of their great leader, Stalin, the whole Soviet people have turned into one mighty war camp. That day, from sunrise to sunset, 160 cameramen filmed numerous episodes both at the fronts and in the interior. This film. has recently been shown in Britain. Soviet film workers engaged at the front know that each foot of film taken in battle is of historical value. It will afford an edifying narrative for future generations. Humanity's future is being born in today's battle, let our descendants know the great cost of their happiness, which is today being won for them by the Bed Army men defending Stalingrad, by the Cossacks of the Kuban, Terek and Don, by the sailors of the Baltic. We have seen some splendid pictures made by gallant English cameramen, filming battles in the air, in the Libyan desert and on the Atlantic Ocean, we have seen newsreels about brave R. A. F. men making death-dealing raids deep behind the enemy's lines. We applauded the work of the heroic cameraman, Tom Tanner, who filmed the Malta convoy. A while ago we saw a new newsreel about Malta and admired the skill and gallantry of the cameramen filming the plucky fight of the island's residents, A. A. men, R.A^F. men and sailors. We Soviet cameramen are proud that in these grim days we wear trench-muddied military uniform. And on behalf of all Soviet newsreel camera men, in giving greetings to our British colleagues, I shoidd like to say with all my voice : " Friends ! It is with blood and tears, children, brothers, fathers and mothers that the Soviet people pays for your having not yet suffered all the horrors of an enemy invasion of your country. But hatching dreams of world domination, man-eating Hitler also wants his killers and marauders to lay their bloody trail of rapine and conflagrations across your country too. "About 200 cameramen work on various sectors of our front. A further 1,000 directors, assistants, editors, laboratory workers, cutters are engaged in producing newsreel issues that appear regularly every three days, including war news shots. Aeroplanes, trains and dusty khakicokmred bulletpunctured front line lorries daily deliver to the Central Newsreel Studio in Moscow their tins of films. One winter morning a car containing tins of film drove up as usual to the Central Studio. Inside the vehicle lay the dead body of our colleague, cameraman Pavlov. He had been filming the Red Army taking a town in the front line and had been killed by shrapnel. At the precise moment at which this heroic cameraman was being buried, the studio was mixing the sound track for its next newsreel issue, which showed the actual scenes of our troops retaking Malo-Yaroslavets, the very same battle in which Pavlov had met his death. " The war of the Soviet people against Hitler's hordes knows many instances of sublime heroism and valour. It would be difficult today to say where Soviet newsreelmen could not be found filming this war throughout the vast expanse of the front stretching from the Black Sea to the Arctic Ocean. "These cameramen ascend in warplanes and their cameras travel deep into the enemy's rear where Soviet aircraft hurl their cargo of bombs ; they descend deep underwater aboard Soviet submarines ; they will always be found at their posts in infantry units even in the most strenuous moments of enemy charges; they film guerilla action far behind the enemy's lines. The cameraman often becomes the Red Army man, laying aside his camera and taking up a machine-gun or tommy-gun. " I should very much like tobei you, my friends, cameramen of Great Britain, that we shall meet you working and fighting hand in hand with us when the Second Front is at last opened. 'Then, firmly gripping each other in a handshake, in close creative co-operation, we shall film the final shots and make the great historic film of the derisive battle and victory of Ereedom-loA inprogressive mankind . ' ' (By courtesy of the " Daily Worker ").