Lesson plan

Kinoks

The Kinoks ( ) were a collective of Soviet filmmakers in the 1920s, consisting of Dziga Vertov, Elizaveta Svilova and Mikhail Kaufman. According to Annette Michelson, Georges Sadoul states the collective was founded in 1922 by Svilova, Vertov and Kaufman, and the painter Belyaev was a fourth member. However, in 1923 Svilova wrote an open letter to the journal LEF applying for admission to the Council of Three. Scholars have interpreted this as a publicity stunt "to provide exposure of their work and to raise awareness of their commitment to documentary cinema" rather than an actual application, since Svilova had already been working with Vertov and Kaufman for several years. From 1922 to 1923 Vertov, Kaufman, and Svilova published a number of manifestos in avant-garde journals which clarified the Kinoks' positions vis-à-vis other leftist groups. The Kinoks argued strongly for documentary cinema and the use of candid cameras and filming workers instead of using actors. They published a series of manifestos and statements in LEF, an avant-garde cinema journal. The most acclaimed work is Man with a Movie Camera (1929).

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Article summary

The Kinoks ( ) were a collective of Soviet filmmakers in the 1920s, consisting of Dziga Vertov, Elizaveta Svilova and Mikhail Kaufman. According to Annette Michelson, Georges Sadoul states the collective was founded in 1922 by Svilova, Vertov and Kaufman, and the painter Belyaev was a fourth member. However, in 1923 Svilova wrote an open letter to the journal LEF applying for admission to the Council of Three. Scholars have interpreted this as a publicity stunt "to provide exposure of their work and to raise awareness of their commitment to documentary cinema" rather than an actual application, since Svilova had already been working with Vertov and Kaufman for several years. From 1922 to 1923 Vertov, Kaufman, and Svilova published a number of manifestos in avant-garde journals which clarified the Kinoks' positions vis-à-vis other leftist groups. The Kinoks argued strongly for documentary cinema and the use of candid cameras and filming workers instead of using actors. They published a series of manifestos and statements in LEF, an avant-garde cinema journal. The most acclaimed work is Man with a Movie Camera (1929).

Key claims

  1. date of foundation: 1922 — source: Wikipedia · confidence 0.95

Discussion questions

  1. Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
  2. The record states that the date of foundation is "1922". What evidence would count against this claim?
  3. Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
  4. If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?

Bibliography

  1. Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1320370860

Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.