What is television information?
The formation of the communist consciousness of Soviet people requires a steady expansion and deepening of the party's ideological influence on the masses, as well as continuous improvement of party propaganda and agitation. The solution to these tasks today largely depends on the quality of the work of mass media and propaganda, including television. The party constantly improves the work of all links of mass media and propaganda. Great attention is also paid to television — a new, powerful ideological weapon.
Ideological workers must possess a strong sense of the new. Among those who are currently in the main areas of mass political and educational work are television journalists, working in the most "hot," operational, and responsible area — television information.
So, what is television information? It is a specific type of political information that contains operational (current) messages about events, facts, and phenomena in both political and other areas of life, regularly transmitted to a dispersed mass audience via an audiovisual communication channel.
The search for new audiovisual forms of information broadcasts aimed at improving political and educational ideological work among a vast audience led to the creation of the Central Television of the USSR's evening television program "Vremya," which began airing on January 1, 1968.
Within the framework of the "Vremya" program, television information ceased to be (as it unfortunately had been in earlier television news broadcasts) a mechanical repetition of already known messages. It becomes primary in the broadest sense of the word.
Television viewers in the country gained the opportunity to learn about important events in the country and abroad simultaneously, and often even faster than they were reported by radio or newspapers. The establishment during the 9th Five-Year Plan of stable, and in some places new sources of current information for Central Television and All-Union Radio in various regions of the country (including Kyrgyzstan) laid the foundation for the creation of a unified, all-union system (service) of television information. The leading link, the main element of this system became the program "Vremya."
In 1974, effective work was carried out to eliminate the delay in the transmission of all-union and international screen information to the regions of Central Asia, Siberia, and the Far East. Corrections were made to the programs broadcast on the "Orbita" and "Vostok" systems, optimal designs of broadcasting grids were developed (program layout for the day's broadcasts, selection of optimal viewing times, etc.), and paths for their further improvement were outlined.
Thus, gradually, in the second half of the 1970s, television information became truly eventful, genuinely periodic, and all-union.
The combination of these specific features, along with such requirements for political propaganda as partisanship, truthfulness, objectivity, progressiveness, etc., contributed to the final formation of event television periodicals as a new type of operational (current) screen information. "The program 'Vremya,' informing millions of Soviet people about the events of the day, became a kind of touchstone, a hallmark of quality by which viewers judge many other documentary programs, the level and creative potential of our television."
To improve the quality of materials coming from the field (primarily information), special divisions (editorial offices, departments, groups) were created within the structures of republican and regional Committees on Television and Radio Broadcasting to prepare operational information for Central Television and All-Union Radio.
One of the first such editorial offices in the country was organized in 1973 in the State Committee of the Kyrgyz SSR for Television and Radio Broadcasting. With its establishment, the life of the republic began to be covered in the all-union information program more operationally and purposefully.
Our republic has been represented in the program since the mid-1970s by experienced television journalist Vladimir Fedorov, whose work is marked by the search for new topics and new forms of presenting event material, alongside cameramen from the republican Gosteleradio.
The daily broadcasting schedules of studios of various types located in different time zones are planned in such a way that regional TV broadcasts do not overlap with periodic releases of operational information from Central Television.
Strict adherence to the main parameters of the Central Television information day model facilitates the coordination of the airing times of regional information releases, which acquires particular significance in the context of multi-program broadcasting.
The region of "maximum saturation with television information" can be considered the television center in the city of Frunze, which receives programs from Central Television ("Vostok" and "Orbita" 4) and retransmits broadcasts from the republican television of the Kazakh SSR and Uzbek SSR.
Thus, the evening (main) release of the information program of Central Television "Vremya" becomes the center of the broadcasting day of regional television, its culmination.
Several examples.
On May 11, 1978, the program "Vremya" broadcast a report (visual, V 20") about the capital of Kyrgyzstan, which was celebrating its 100th anniversary. In the announcer's "lead-in," a message from TASS was read — a decree from the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR awarding the city of Frunze the Order of the Red Banner of Labor. The Kyrgyz TV program "Ala-Too," whose first release aired on January 1, 1978, reported the information (verbal, 0' 54") about the city's award only two days later — on May 13, at 19:32. That same evening — at 21:37, the program "Vremya" showed a report (!' 12") about a solemn meeting of the city's workers in connection with the awarding of the high honor to the capital of Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyz TV transmitted a 40-minute report on this event at 22:00, meaning that viewers at home first learned about the event from Moscow...
Thus, we are talking about the organizational and substantive aspects of the interaction between all-union and regional television information.
In this case, they manifested themselves in the optimization of the process of selecting and transmitting audiovisual messages received from the field on the day of the event, thus demonstrating the operational efficiency of the information services of both central and regional television that prepared the material.
By transmitting information about an event of all-union significance in a "condensed" form in the program "Vremya," Central Television thereby provided regional TV with the opportunity to tell more about it.
Considering the inherent differences in the organizational and production capabilities of information services (for example, the message about the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR awarding the city of Frunze, received through TASS channels, was transmitted in the program "Vremya" before it was published in newspapers), one cannot help but note the disorderly functioning of regional TV — both in organizational and substantive aspects.
The insufficient operational efficiency of the regional service in transmitting television messages can be explained by the desire not to disrupt the schedules of event information (this release was not marked in either the weekly or daily program listings). In the context of multi-program broadcasting, this presents a certain challenge for regional TV.
The lack of operational efficiency in transmitting verbal messages via television channel (even without using additional materials) clearly indicates the non-optimal functioning of the regional television information service, caused by reasons of a creative rather than technical nature.
Regional television, as the main source of audiovisual information on intra-union topics, determines the genre and thematic orientation, depth, and relevance of all-union television periodicals: materials from Kyrgyzstan transmitted in the program "Vremya" were prepared by journalists of republican television. The all-union information channel, by giving the material a different scale, makes it more significant and substantial — it imparts a higher level of representativeness.
Journalists of republican television have been working on the releases of the information program "Ala-Too" for several years. A certain experience has been accumulated in choosing ways to organize and transmit audiovisual material, working in the operational genres of television journalism. Modern equipment, sound recording, film, and television shooting techniques have come to the aid. Most of the informational materials are presented in color.
However, excessive use of oral information in the releases without visual content, unexpressive, template techniques in camerawork, and negligence of directors in conveying information on air (for example, when a graphic image is held on screen longer than necessary or when a film with material is delayed in being included, etc.) certainly do not contribute to the operational informing of the population about events in the socio-political, socio-economic, and cultural life of the republic using specific means unique to television, and to a fuller utilization of its capabilities.
The performance of broad propaganda functions by republican television information is significantly hindered by an illustrative-declarative approach to the selection, design, and transmission of audiovisual information, an approach that only works successfully at the initial (emotional) stage of understanding the new.
The absence of analysis, generalization of transmitted television news, and consideration of individual facts in the context of events and problems of the past day both in the country and abroad (which our neighboring television journalists do quite successfully in the programs "Kazakhstan" and "Akborot") leads to thematic poverty of the program and geographical narrowness of the message. For example, it is rare to see a report from an industrial enterprise, a feature story from a remote area, or a sketch about an interesting person. Entire regions of the republic sometimes disappear from the information program.
A full-bodied thematic structure of the releases of the program primarily requires a constant "registration" of economic issues in the audiovisual information. "For Soviet power," V. I. Lenin emphasized, "the organization of labor in the largest enterprises and in individual village communities is the most important, fundamental, and pressing issue of all public life."
Only such television information can become an important means of shaping public opinion, fostering communist consciousness and conviction, and mobilizing the working people of the republic to fulfill the tasks set before the Soviet people by the Communist Party.
...This was an unusual letter: "You are our hope... In your hands lies the fate of the Motherland, the fate of the Soviet system...
Be unyielding in the fight against the enemy, like Ala-Too, merciless and cold to the invader, like the snows of the formidable peaks of the Tian Shan..."
More than 700 thousand Kyrgyzstanis signed this letter to their fellow countrymen at the front in January 1943. A document of resilience and courage of those who brought victory in the rear... It was dedicated to a broadcast for the 35th anniversary of Victory, prepared by journalists of the Main Editorial Office of Propaganda of Kyrgyz Television and employees of the Central State Archive of the Kyrgyz SSR (authors D. Kyzayev, U. Tashmatov, editor K. Estebesov, director Z. Suyunalieva). The program was called "The Assistance of the Workers of Kyrgyzstan to the Front."
...Kyrgyzstanis fought heroically on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War. The 316th (8th Guards) Rifle Division, commanded by the military commissar of the republic, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kyrgyzstan, Major General Ivan Vasilyevich Panfilov, became eternally famous for its battles near Moscow. The award-winning 385th Rifle Division, formed in Kyrgyzstan, marched from Moscow to Berlin. The guards of the 4th Kyrgyz Corps fought bravely against the enemy. More than one hundred thousand Kyrgyzstan warriors have been awarded orders and medals of the USSR. More than 70 of them have been awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
There is no front without the rear. Our compatriots worked selflessly. Perhaps the cameramen of the newsreel studio, organized in Frunze in the harsh '42, did not think about the invaluable material they were leaving for posterity. The newsreel operators filmed stories for the very first releases of the newsreel "Soviet Kyrgyzstan" in the Tian Shan mountains, on the sugar beet plantations of the Chui Valley, in the workshops of factories and plants, in hospitals and schools...
Here they are — on our television screens, frames of newsreel footage retrieved from the archive... A moving testament to the faith in victory of our compatriots, their heroism.
...March 1942. The Stakhanovite shift of workers at the Frunze plant. Metal was coming from four furnaces under the hammer of Mikhail Trofimovich Chernyshov. Over a thousand percent daily — that’s how the blacksmith Chernyshov worked. This was his fiery frontier, his contribution to Victory.
Perhaps Ainek Aitkulov, Zuurakan Kainazarov, and Kerimbubu Shopokov recognized themselves in the film footage of the war years.
The pride of the republic, Heroes of Socialist Labor. The beginning of their labor feat, the roots of their devotion to their cause — on the front-line shift, in the harsh military hour...
Naturally, in a 15-minute broadcast, only a small part of what Kyrgyzstanis did for the front, for Victory during the war was told. There were the Big Chui Canal, warm clothes and wagons with food, the production of weapons, and simple, yet dear gifts from children to soldiers... And joyful people on the streets of Frunze, and a demonstration in the Central Square... May '45! Victory...
Faces in military photographs. Teenagers replacing fathers at the machines. Children of war years, gathering ears of grain in the collective farm field... It is interesting to know how their fates turned out, where they are, who they are? What great opportunities lie in addressing this topic... Interest in documents, archival photographs, and film footage does not wane. Without the past, without memory, there is no person.
In the last days of October 1982, the Main Editorial Office of Propaganda of Kyrgyz Television (authors A. Toktogulov and T. Razakov, director M. Abdin) aired a documentary program titled "Contempt." This legitimate feeling is evoked in us by Kudaibergen Kozhomberdiev, for whose actions there is one word — betrayal.
A traitor to the Kyrgyz people, Kozhomberdiev fled to the West a few months after the victory of the Soviet people over fascist Germany. Under the name Azamat Altai, he slanders his people, working in Munich at the "Freedom" radio station, which, as is known, is funded by the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States.
The program did not leave viewers indifferent. Letters poured into the television station and the editorial offices of republican newspapers, in which viewers — people of different ages and professions — expressed their views on the traitor.
— The Great Patriotic War,— wrote, for example, to the editorial office of the newspaper "Soviet Kyrgyzstan" Duyshimbu Matanov, a veteran of war and labor from the village of Bokonbaevskoye in the Ton district of the Issyk-Kul region,— caught me in Leningrad. I was studying in the city where Lenin lived and worked, in the city that bears his name... Our studies and life in Leningrad were interesting and exciting, but often, when I went to the embankment of the beautiful Neva, I remembered the blue Issyk-Kul, my native Bokonbaevskoye... The republic needed qualified personnel — and we studied. And when a dark cloud of fascism hung over the Motherland, we, as volunteers, went to the front.
We fought against the hated enemy on the Belarusian front, defending our Soviet land from disaster. And we defended it!
Now I am retired. But I work. I educate young people at the rural vocational technical school No. 11. Boys and girls from all over the district come to our Bokonbaevskoye to study as shepherds, mechanizers of broad profiles. We built an excellent four-story building in the village — a dormitory for the school. My fellow villagers received a great gift — a large store "Kyrchin" — it has furniture and stationery, various dishes — from kitchenware to tea and coffee sets. Our shopping center is one of the best in the Pre-Issyk-Kul region. My native village is getting better, becoming more comfortable. You look around — your soul rejoices. Such changes around! Among my fellow countrymen are well-known doctors, poets, playwrights, directors. There are Heroes of Socialist Labor, respected people.
They hold sacred the customs and traditions of their ancestors, the history of their native people. For example, in our collective farm, there is a waterer K. Atabekov — one of the best self-taught Manaschi in the republic.
What do people like our former compatriot Kudaibergen Kozhomberdiev, who sold himself to the enemy, want? The grief, tears, and suffering of their people? Their powerlessness and humiliation?
With anger and indignation, my fellow countrymen watched the television program "Contempt," in which well-known, respected people, who traveled abroad as part of delegations or on business trips, recounted — with contempt! — how the traitor Kudaibergen tried to talk to them, to extract secret data from them, and tried to slander the friendship of Soviet peoples. Kozhomberdiev's betrayal fell upon his head with indelible shame, the contempt of his compatriots, all Kyrgyz. He chose this path of lies and slander for himself. "Kiyshyk jol — kiyamat jol," says the Kyrgyz folk wisdom. "The crooked path is the road to hell." Let those who have covered themselves with disgrace and shame remember this.
The program, prepared by republican television, became a vivid example of the strong ideological impact that can be achieved by workers of various mass media, coordinating their efforts in developing important, relevant topics — in this case, the socio-political life.
Continuing the important theme raised in the letter from the residents of Bokonbaevskoye, published in the newspaper "Soviet Kyrgyzstan," — the angry response of compatriots to the traitor of the Kyrgyz people, it once again vividly and convincingly demonstrated what a sharp ideological weapon our television can and should be, one of the most important means of ideological-political work among the broadest layers of the population.
Another interesting program from the Main Editorial Office of Propaganda "collects" a large viewer mail. It first aired in August 1979. During this time, the program has developed a certain circle of authors and a fairly stable audience. The releases, summarized in a thematic cycle, were unified on the screen and had a permanent host. They were conducted by commentator of Kyrgyz TV Alexandra Cheremushkina.
— The very first release of the program elicited a lot of responses,— says Alexandra Andreevna,— people of different nationalities called and came to the editorial office. We received many letters, not only from Kyrgyzstan but also from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan. It became clear that the initiated conversation concerns many. In the letter department of the State Television and Radio of the Kyrgyz SSR, separate folders were created for the mail addressed to the program "Word about the Motherland." The authors are interested in a wide range of issues. We try to respond to them in the broadcasts. We had specialists from various fields of knowledge and citizens from the Federal Republic of Germany as guests. The commentator of Central Television and All-Union Radio A. V. Zholkver came to participate in the program. Viewers also met citizens of the Federal Republic of Germany Karla Maria Shelike (who received a residence permit in Frunze due to marriage) and Rezina Foilikh (Hamburg). In several letters, there were many bright words about the Motherland, coming from the depths of the soul.
"Motherland is a sacred word, it rightfully stands alongside the word 'mother,'" wrote I. A. Dilmatt from Novopokrovka in the Kant district.
In one of the releases, a letter addressed to the program caught attention, the author of which decided to remain anonymous. Was it not because his anonymous "message" was filled with malice, was, as they say, filled to the brim with slander?
I think we were right to decide to publish it. This was immediately confirmed by viewer letters. Here, for example, one of the first. Addressing the anonymous author and refuting his assumptions, Konstantin Alexandrovich Albrandt from the city of Mayli-Say wrote: "Citizens of German nationality in our city, with whom I have spoken, are outraged by your offensive letter that humiliates the national pride and dignity of Soviet Germans. Do not dare to speak on behalf of the nation!"
Over these years, Alexandra Andreevna, you have had more than twenty meetings with viewers. The program introduced us to many remarkable people of German nationality, for whom the Soviet Kyrgyzstan became their homeland.
There is the sugar beet grower, holder of the Order of Lenin Frida Vilyevna Rudenko from Novopavlovka, worker of the Frunze plant Alexander Gutman, scientist of the republican Academy of Sciences Robert Egorovich Giss, foreman of the state farm named after the 50th anniversary of the USSR in the Sokuluk district Vladimir Ivanovich Dik, deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the republic, milker of the collective farm named after Kalinin in the Leninpol district Mina Vilyevna Ott, chief agronomist of the collective farm "Trud" in the Kant district Vladimir Ivanovich Ungefug, and many others. We also had meetings with entire teams.
With the help of modern television technology, viewers visited secondary school No. 23 in Frunze (where classes are taught in German), met with the youth ensemble of the collective farm "Trud" in the Kant district, and got acquainted with the work of one of the faculties of foreign languages at Kyrgyz State University.
But there are people of a completely different fate. I mean those who moved to the Federal Republic of Germany or petitioned for emigration (few have direct relatives there), citing the highest motives, up to the Final Act of the Helsinki Conference. Among the reasons for emigration, I would primarily name the temptation of the bright advertising of the West German way of life, created by bourgeois propaganda.
Together with candidate of historical sciences, lecturer on international issues Jumala Umetov, in the very first broadcast, we engaged in an open debate with opponents on the air — radio stations "Free Europe," "German Wave," and others, which, although thousands of kilometers away from us, actively invited people of German nationality living in our country, including in Kyrgyzstan, to the Federal Republic of Germany, adopting the slogan of "the struggle for human rights" and "the historical homeland of Germans."
...A person decided to leave the Motherland — why? The fates of these people, their children, and grandchildren depend on the civic position of each of us. It seems that the more actively we discuss the emerging problems, the faster we will solve them.
The popular column of many newspapers "Meetings for You" not only gave its name to the television program but also defined its essence. The authors' idea, having much more opportunities due to the specifics of television than their colleagues from newspapers, offered viewers, on the last evening of summer 1970, meetings with journalist, correspondent of the newspaper "Rural Life" for the Kyrgyz SSR I. M. Masaulov, film director, honored artist of the Kyrgyz SSR A. S. Vidugiris, people's artist of the Kyrgyz SSR A. N. Mikhalev, and film director M. Dzhergalbaev.
Ivan Matveevich Masaulov talked about what the whole country was living at that time — about the grain harvest. He commented on film fragments. He recalled meetings with those who grew and harvested our main wealth. Personal observations made I. M. Masaulov's story bright and interesting.
Filmmakers from the "Kyrgyzfilm" studio — director Algimantas Vidugiris and cameraman Murat Dzhergalbaev were finishing work on the full-length color documentary film "The Sun in the Palm" (working title "In the Year of the Restless Sun") about the builders of the Toktogul Hydroelectric Power Station — the second part of "Naryn Diary." Those who watched "Meetings" became the first viewers of the episode about the construction of the 500 kV power line from the new film by Vidugiris.
Andrei Nikolayevich Mikhalev spoke about the great possibilities of watercolor techniques. We saw watercolors from different times and creative styles: Delacroix and Bryullov, Repin and Konchalovsky, Deyieki and Ostrova-Lebedeva, Kyrgyz artists D. Dzhumabayeva and R. Nudelya. At the end of his story-journey through the ages and countries, A. N. Mikhalev showed several of his watercolors made in the At-Bashinsky district — "Hydroelectric Station," "Student Construction Team in the Collective Farm," watercolors made three years ago — in Helsinki...
Affirming a very important thought for him about the personality of the television speaker, V. Sappak — the first talented researcher of the specifics of television — wrote that the face of "the person on our screen, ...behavior in the studio, manner of speaking — in a word, everything, down to the smallest details — is more important to us, makes a greater impression than the immediate content of the speech, than the text itself" ...
The people who came to us in the program "Meetings for You" — representatives of creative professions: journalist, filmmakers, artist — became clearer and more understandable after the television meeting, both their work and they themselves.
Behind the line in the newspaper — the surname of I. M. Masaulov — is now a well-known manner of speaking energetically, businesslike, and a professional habit of accuracy in facts, surnames, and names.
Behind the credits on the screen with the surnames A. Vidugiris and M. Dzhergalbaev — the ability to understand each other with half a word, to work together, to think collectively. Like-minded people. The key to real work in art is one of the main conditions for successful work...
Behind the signature "A. Mikhalev" in the corner of the painting — deep knowledge, high professionalism, the ability to simply and engagingly tell about the complex...
Such observations cannot be made by a newspaper "Meeting." This is within the power of television "Meetings." Documentary TV does what sometimes documentary cinema does not always succeed in — it leaves us with the person on the screen one-on-one.
And if this is an interesting person, a master of his craft, if he knows how to not only speak but also think — then the acquaintance has taken place.
The authors of "Meetings" correctly understood the purpose of the program, which they called a "program." Its composition was thoughtful, genre diversity was maintained: a conversation with a journalist, an interview with filmmakers, a story by an artist. The visual row was also diverse: newsreel stories, synchronous episodes from the new film, excellent reproductions of watercolor sheets, the watercolors themselves.
A special, "businesslike leisurely" quality, an unforced quality was given to the program by the relaxed, gentle manner of communicating with viewers of commentator Alexandra Cheremushkina. She accurately found the tone for this evening, "home" conversation. And the time for "Meetings" was well chosen — from 20:55 to 21:55.
So why did the program leave a feeling of annoyance? And again, one has to talk about the technique of shooting, the manner of transmitting material on air, its design — the work of the director on television. It seemed that in this program it simply did not exist!
A. Cheremushkina announced who would be our guest today and invited Ivan Matveevich Masaulov. She did not introduce the word, but rather invited — like a hospitable hostess. And the guest "behaved strangely": either he was delayed, or he changed his mind — he was not there. The hostess sat for a long time, waited a long time. She sat in front of the camera, in the frame. And waited, as it turned out later, not only for the first guest but also for the second, third, and fourth... This is in a program that is broadcast in video recording!
Soon after the airing of the next episode of the satirical television magazine "Kolyuchiy Ekran," a letter arrived at the Main Editorial Office of Literary and Dramatic Programs of Kyrgyz Television:
"Dear comrades,— wrote Anatoly Gorbunov, a milling machine operator at the Frunze Experimental Repair Plant named after the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.— I recently watched your satirical magazine on television. What I saw on the film outraged me and my comrades to the core. We spare no effort or labor to ensure timely and quality repairs of equipment, putting a piece of our soul into each repaired part, we try to make this part durable. And in the end, not only parts but valuable tractors are literally buried in the ground!
Our team has taken on increased obligations, engaged in competition for production efficiency and quality of work, for the successful completion and over-fulfillment of the tasks of the tenth five-year plan... Is it possible that those responsible for the preservation of equipment have no civic conscience, no elementary sense of responsibility for the entrusted work?"
The letter from the worker is a response to one of the stories in the television magazine about the careless attitude towards equipment.
...Hundreds of tons of metal, which just yesterday were tractors, seeders, are overgrown with weeds, rusting in the rain, in each repaired part of which A. Gorbunov and his comrades "put a piece of their soul"... The host of "Kolyuchiy Ekran" cites the figures: of 766 tractors, only 80 were repaired, of 168 combines — only 20, of 148 seeders — 48, of 280 plows — 95...
"Kolyuchiy Ekran" has been airing for ten years. The effectiveness of the program is evidenced by the reactions to its materials from various organizations, whose careless activities have found a place on the "pages" of the satirical television magazine, and the letters from viewers to television after the airing of the next issue. "Kolyuchiy Ekran" shows and tells in an unvarnished, convincing, and sometimes truly television manner about those who, in their attitude towards their responsibilities, have fully "earned" the right to be an acting character in the satirical magazine of the People's Control Committee of the Kyrgyz SSR and the Main Editorial Office of Literary and Dramatic Broadcasting of republican television.
The letter from worker Gorbunov, sent to the editorial office, became the starting point for the next issue of the magazine — a raid on the preservation of metal, conducted jointly with the workers of the People's Control Committee.
Four "pages." 20 minutes of airtime. Genres: interview, correspondence, feuilleton. The minimum of expressive means did not hinder the persuasiveness of the release. However, let us note: the genre distinction of the release is textual, not visual. The correspondence from the factory and the feuilleton about the careless attitude towards metal in the collective farm were filmed in exactly the same way — uninterestingly. The camerawork in "Kolyuchiy Ekran," as in some other programs of Kyrgyz TV of those years, was not only not "up to par," but unfortunately, sometimes simply unprofessional.
Nevertheless, striving for maximum genre diversity, the authors of "Kolyuchiy Ekran" demonstrate enviable inventiveness, taking into account not only the features of screen journalism: pace, spectacle, diversity of genres, but also the specifics of their "publication": a television magazine consisting of independent critical materials united by one theme.
...On a painted backdrop, a crooked brick wall is depicted. Sitting on a pile of broken bricks with a trowel in hand is a bricklayer... (A skit "Brick by Brick" about the masters supplying defective building materials). The names of the defectors are then named by the host.
...The "confession" of a "book lover," who "processes" books at the State Library named after Chernyshevsky: "I can't just take a book out of the library whole! They might catch me, God forbid,— the "book lover" confesses. — So I have to drag it out page by page. Today I'll tear out one page. Tomorrow I'll tear out another page. The day after tomorrow — another one..."
The announcer's text, written in the first person, along with the montage of photographs of mutilated books and reader tickets of "bookworms," creates a convincingly horrific impression.
...The announcements of "Kolyuchiy Ekran." Read completely seriously, on precise caricature backdrops, they are witty and concise.
As a tradition, in each subsequent issue, specific measures taken after the magazine's latest performance are communicated to viewers...
The specificity of television, as is known, implies a personal nature of communication with the audience: the impact of what is happening is enhanced by the personality of the author, the person on the screen. The businesslike and relaxed, moderately demanding, and moderately ironic manner of conversing with viewers, compact, thoughtful layout — from official responses from ministries and departments to couplets about the woes of tailors and announcements create a sense of completeness, integrity, and thoughtfulness of the releases.
In the line of its peers — periodic satirical magazines: the printed "Chalkan," the television "Shibeg," the cinematic "Korogoch" — "Kolyuchiy Ekran" does important and necessary work as it should: seriously and humorously.
...In the late 1970s, a fruitful trend of collaboration with colleagues from fraternal socialist countries emerged in the development of documentary cinema and television in the republic.
At the "Kyrgyztelefilm" studio, this was initiated by joint work with television journalists from the German Democratic Republic.
In the fall of 1979, after finishing filming in the Far East, they came to Kyrgyzstan. Screenwriter and director X. Kristiansen, cameraman I. Kyonig, and sound engineer X. Mitchen, with the help of Frunze colleagues, filmed the movie "The Man from Tian Shan."
...Confidently overcoming the dizzying, numerous twists of the mountain road, the district committee's "Gazik," Korchubek Aknaazarov, hurried to the field — the harvest was beginning... The cameraman did not turn off the camera for a long time, showing both the breathtaking beauty of ancient Tian Shan and the hard daily life of Aknaazarov.
Korchubek Akpazarov — the first secretary of the Kochkor district party committee, is not very talkative. He speaks sparingly about the difficulties he faced from the very first days of work: there was little water, and there were few pastures. The main task at that time was to raise field farming... That was how it was.
Television journalists from the GDR carefully scrutinize the faces of livestock breeders, mechanizers, irrigators, and field workers.
They try to understand, remember the previously unknown character, national customs, details of everyday life.
They listen to the rhythm and melody of unfamiliar speech, modern songs, and folk tunes. From frame to frame, from episode to episode, the image of Aknaazarov emerges — an experienced, authoritative party worker, Hero of Socialist Labor, deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Kyrgyz SSR, head of a large family, which includes many young people: daughters who have received higher education — a lawyer, an economist, a doctor; little grandchildren. The "collective" interview with the Aknaazarov family is one of the best episodes of the film.
The biography of Korchubek Aknaazarov is like that of many of his generation. He lost his parents early. But he did not become an orphan. He received an education in an orphanage. Worked in the MTS. He left for the front from the third year of the Osh Agricultural Technical School. There he became a communist. At 20, after a serious injury, he finished the war on the Vistula as part of the 1st Belarusian Front under the command of Marshal K. K. Rokossovsky.
For 15-year-old Holger Kristiansen, the war ended in May '45. He remembered for life an unknown Soviet soldier who handed him a piece of bread and a steaming mess kit with an aluminum spoon. German communist, television documentarian Holger Kristiansen showed thousands of his compatriots — our friends in the GDR — the film about the Soviet communist, Kyrgyz Korchubek Aknaazarov brought from the faraway Kochkorka.
A good sign of our time — a time of deepening socialist cooperation.
This film was also watched in the neighboring areas of the Federal Republic of Germany, where, as we know, television broadcasts from the capital of the GDR are received. Among these viewers, there were probably those who can hardly be called our friends today.
The relevance and significance of this film about a man from Tian Shan, filmed in Soviet Kyrgyzstan, only increased.