Esfir Ilyinichna Shub (Russian: Эсфи́рь Ильи́нична Шуб; 16 March 1894, Surazh, Russian Empire – 21 September 1959, Moscow, Soviet Union), also referred to as Esther Il'inichna Shub, was a pioneering Soviet filmmaker and editor in both the mainstream and documentary fields. She is best known for her trilogy of films, ''Fall of the Romanov Dynasty'' (1927), ''The Great Road'' (1927), and '' The Russia of Nicholas II and Leo Tolstoy'' (1928). Shub is credited as the creator of

compilation film A compilation film, or compilation movie is a film composed of scenes and shots taken from two or more prior films or television programs and edited together so as to make a new film, whether on the same or a different subject. The most common e ...

and is known for her revolutionary approaches to editing and assembling preserved and archived footage.

Early life

Shub was born, March 16, 1894, into a Jewish family of landowners in the town of Surazhe, a small town in the

Chernigov Chernihiv (, ; , ) is a city and municipality in northern Ukraine, which serves as the administrative center of Chernihiv Oblast and Chernihiv Raion within the oblast. Chernihiv's population is The city was designated as a Hero City of Ukrain ...

region of

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

, which is now the Brianskaya province of the southwest part of the

Russian Federation Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. Her father, Ilya Roshal, was a pharmacist. Shub’s mother died when she was a young child and was also known to have one brother. Shub was born into a lower middle class family, and travelled to

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

before the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

Education

By the mid-1910s, Shub had settled in Moscow to begin her study of literature at the Institute for Women’s Higher Education. There she got involved in the revolutionary fervor emerging amongst young university students.

Career

After moving to Moscow, Shub became involved in the Soviet avant-garde world, specifically in constructivist theatre. Shub edited a wide range of films. Noted is her first work, a complete re-editing of

Charlie Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered o ...

's 1916 film ''

Carmen ''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed by the O ...

'', which was the first Chaplin film ever to be seen in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. In 1918, after working as

Vsevolod Meyerhold Vsevolod Emilyevich Meyerhold (; born ; 2 February 1940) was a Russian and Soviet theatre director, actor and theatrical producer. His provocative experiments dealing with physical being and symbolism in an unconventional theatre setting m ...

’s private secretary in the Soviet administration at the head office of the TEO Theatre Department of the Narkompros (People’s Commissariat of Education), she began collaborating with the stage director

and poet

Vladimir Mayakovsky Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky ( – 14 April 1930) was a Russian poet, playwright, artist, and actor. During his early, Russian Revolution, pre-Revolution period leading into 1917, Mayakovsky became renowned as a prominent figure of the Ru ...

on several theatrical projects. During this time she also became involved with the Left Front of the Arts (LEF) group.

Goskino

In 1922, Shub began her film career at

Goskino Goskino USSR () is the abbreviated name for the USSR State Committee for Cinematography (Государственный комитет по кинематографии СССР) in the Soviet Union. It was a central state directory body for Sovi ...

, the major Soviet state-owned film company. There she worked as an editor, in charge of censoring imported foreign films for domestic distribution, rendering these films “suitable” for Soviet audiences. Here she worked alongside

Sergei Eisenstein Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein; (11 February 1948) was a Soviet film director, screenwriter, film editor and film theorist. Considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, he was a pioneer in the theory and practice of montage. He is no ...

, re-editing films such as the Soviet release of

Fritz Lang Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), better known as Fritz Lang (), was an Austrian-born film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety Obituari ...

’s '' Dr Mabuse''. Shub’s intensive experience at

, reediting pre-revolutionary and foreign productions as well as new Soviet features, helped cultivate the journalistic style of filmmaking she is well-regarded for. Her method of editing had a substantial influence on both

Dziga Vertov Dziga Vertov (born David Abelevich Kaufman; – 12 February 1954) was a Soviet pioneer documentary film and newsreel director, as well as a cinema theorist. His filming practices and theories influenced the cinéma vérité style of documentary ...

and Eisenstein, two of her most prominent peers.

''The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty (1927)''

In 1927, Shub released her first documentary, ''Padenie dinastii Romanovykh''. She was commissioned to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution. and to provide the first visual record of the

. ''The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty'' is one of Shub’s most famous surviving films and what many film historians classify as the first compilation film or

Soviet montage Soviet montage theory is an approach to understanding and creating cinema that relies heavily upon editing ('' montage'' is French for 'assembly' or 'editing'). It is the principal contribution of Soviet film theorists to global cinema, and int ...

. Originally titled ''February,'' screenwriter Mark Tseitlin and Esfir Shub collaborated on this documentary-style film centered around the decline of the Russian monarchy. The movie is made up of stock and archived footage that Shub meticulously preserved and reused. Shub traveled to Leningrad in 1926 to obtain the footage she needed for the film, spending two months examining more than 60,000 meters of film (much of which was damaged) and chose 5,200 meters to take back to Moscow. The film covers the years 1912 to 1917, recounting the moments before, after and during World War I, and then ending with the

October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

. It is notable for its use of intertitles, which provide historical context and commentary on the events depicted in the footage as well as help guide viewers through the beginning of the end of the Romanov dynasty. This technique, along with her portrayal of the Romanov family, effectively demonstrates the stark contrast between the lavish lifestyle of the aristocracy and the struggles of the working class. Film theorist Alla Gadassik suggests that without her intervention in "sourcing, untangling and preserving neglected rolls of film, it is highly likely that none of this footage would survive the following decades." Shub’s contribution to the history of compilation film was influential in the United States in the 1930s and during World War II. Historians Jack C. Ellis and Betsy A. McLane note that, “nothing like Shub’s films had existed before them, and her work remains among the finest examples of the compilation technique."

Critical reception

Eisenstein's ''October''
1928), which was also commissioned for the tenth anniversary of the event, was criticized by LEFists (Soviet art journalists), for being 'too personal,' while deeming the impersonality of Shub's work more exemplary for the Revolution. Soviet film theorists praised Shub’s invisible authority as truly revolutionary, for it was consumed effectively as propaganda. Sergei Emolinsky, a constructivist critic associated with Soviet art journal, LEF, praises both Shub and Vertov equally for their different attitudes towards documentary film. He explains that while, “Vertov ‘threw himself on the given material, cutting it into numerous pieces, thus subordinating it to his imagination...Shub regarded each piece

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as to a self-sufficient, autonomous entity’.” This first-hand critique of the two methods indicate that Shub’s dedication to journalistic cinematography was the catalyst for what documentary film classifies today, compilation film.

Later works

In 1927 Shub published the article "Rabota Montazhnits" or "The Work of Montagesses," which outlined the labour of women in editing. This article was published months following the distribution of the ''Fall of the Romanov Dynasty'' (1927) documentary, which is when Shub was struggling to gain recognition and directional credit for her film. In 1932, Shub helped spearhead the first Soviet documentary to have sound, called ''Sponsor of Electrification''. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, she worked predominantly as an editor and spent time writing her memoirs both about her life and about filmmaking techniques. She also wrote a script titled ''Women'' (1933–34), which examined women's roles throughout history. Although this project was never filmed, the script reveals Shub's interest in feminism.

Personal life

Shub was married twice. She had a daughter, Anna, with her first husband, Isaac Vladimirovich Shub. After this marriage ended in divorce, she married

Aleksei Gan Aleksei Mikhailovich Gan (Russian language, Russian: Алексей Михайлович Ган; born Imberkh; 1887 or 1893 – 8 September, 1942) was a Russian anarchist and later Marxism, Marxist avant-garde artist, art theorist and graphic ...

, a filmmaker who also published the film journal '' Kino-Fot''. Shub died on September 21, 1959, in Moscow.

Memoirs

Esfir Shub took the time to write her own memoirs entitled, ''Zhizn Moya — Kinematograf'' (''My Life — Cinema'') in the latter half of her career. More information about these memoirs can be found in Vlada Petric’s article in the ''Quarterly Review of Film Studies'' no. 4, “Esther Shub: Cinema is My Life” which is available for viewing at the New York Public Library. In her memoirs, she describes numerous films that were either never made or that the government handed to lesser-known filmmakers who were favored at the time. In her recollections, she is forthcoming about her struggle to win respect as a female theorist and practitioner in the male dominated field of Soviet cinema.

Filmography

* ''The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty'' (1927) * ''Prostitute'' (1927) - editor * ''The Great Road'' (1927) * '' The Russia of Nicholas II and Lev Tolstoi'' (1928) * ''Today'' (1930) * ''Komsomol – Leader of Electrification'' (1932) * ''Spain'' (1939) * ''The Native Country'' (1942) * ''On the Other Side of the Araks'' (1946)

References

External links

Esfir Shub
at Women Film Pioneers Project *
Extensive biography at Answers.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shub, Esfir Soviet film directors Ukrainian women film directors Soviet women film directors Ukrainian Jews Russian Jews 1894 births 1959 deaths Soviet film editors Ukrainian documentary film directors Ukrainian film editors Belarusfilm films Women film pioneers Women film editors Women documentary filmmakers Women memoirists