File:1924 Vertov (film).jpg

{ru} Kinoglaz / {en} Kino Eye [1] (Russia, 1924), directed by Dziga Vertov. <silent>

This documentary promoting the joys of life in a Soviet village centers around the activities of the Young Pioneers. These children are constantly busy, pasting propaganda posters on walls, distributing hand bills, exhorting all to "buy from the cooperative" as opposed to the Private Sector, promoting temperance, and helping poor widows. Experimental portions of the film, projected in reverse, feature the un-slaughtering of a bull and the un-baking of bread.

In the recently founded Soviet Union, Young Pioneers go about zealously improving society - illuminating the Soviet path for the benefit of the unenlightened. However, director Dziga Vertov never forgets that they?re human beings, and the film also shows them diving and swimming in the local swimming hole, just like any other group of boys in the world. Contrasted with these handsome, heroic youngsters is the social flotsam left behind from the pre-revolutionary era - drunken peasants, black market dealers, and patients of mental asylums! <BoyActors>