25 March 2015, 11:30, Birkbeck Cinema
 
This event combined screenings and discussion to explore the work of Esfir Shub (1894-1959), often considered the inventor of the compilation film, and undoubtedly a major figure in the history of documentary filmmaking. Although her name is always cited in histories of Soviet film and documentary cinema, Shub’s films are rarely if ever seen, with the exception of The Fall of the Romanoff Dynasty (1927). This study day featured screenings of rare films (notably Today and Komsomol: Patron of Electrification), as well as a re-evaluation of Shub’s role as an artist and as a pioneer of the recycling of archive footage in the essay film tradition.

Films: Today [Segodnya], Esfir Shub, Russia, 1930, 35mm, 70 minutes, Russian with English subtitles
Repurposing newsreels and other documentary materials, Shub creates a montage film that seeks to demonstrate the differences between life in communist and capitalist societies.

Komsomol: Patron of Electrification [K.S.E. – Komsomol Shef Elektrifikatsii], Esfir Shub, Russia, 1932, digital, 55 minutes, Russian with English subtitles
A very early Soviet sound film, Shub’s experimental documentary portrays the process of electrification across Soviet society and industry. 

Panel: 
•	Michael Chanan (University of Roehampton, writer and filmmaker, notably The American Who Electrified Russia, 2009)
•	Bernard Eisenschitz (film historian, Paris, author of Nicholas Ray: An American Journey, Faber & Faber, 1993, and Gels et dégels: une autre histoire du cinéma soviétique 1926-1968, Mazzotta, 2013)
•	Esther Leslie (Birkbeck, author of Hollywood Flatlands: Animation, Critical Theory and the Avant-Garde, Verso, 2004, and Walter Benjamin, reaction, 2007)
•	Graham Roberts (University of Leeds Trinity, author of Forward Soviet: History and Non-Fiction Film in the Soviet Union, I.B. Tauris, 1998, and Man with the Movie Camera, I.B. Tauris, 1999)