At the Intersection of Theater and Cinematography
Television, whose audience is practically limitless, has its own peculiarities. It subtly yet persistently changes our perception of the surrounding world and the very fabric of our thinking. Thanks to its daily and nightly documentary and informational programs, we have begun to perceive facts as an independent artistic category...
...As if paying homage to his first profession — before graduating from the Institute of Theater, Music, and Cinematography in Leningrad, Amanbek Alpiev obtained a degree as a photographer-artist at the photo studio of the Union of Journalists, and then, already at the television studio, progressed from assistant operator to operator-director — Amanbek began the film "Umutker-ezhe" with photographs.
...Deputy Chairman of the Council of Nationalities of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR U. K. Rysmambetova at a ceremonial meeting in the Kremlin Palace of Congresses. Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR U. K. Rysmambetova at a reception in the Kremlin. Deputy Chief Physician of the Topeka District Hospital Umutker Kalievia Rysmambetova is receiving patients. Umutker-ezhe, the mistress of a large house, mother of six children — in the circle of her family. The theme of the film is declared immediately — documentarily, convincingly.
In "Umutker-ezhe" (script by M. Djangaziev, operator U. Djeentaev) there is everything that a television documentary film should have: reports and synchronous interviews, close-ups of the heroine and landscape sketches. But the film is interesting not because of the adherence to formal techniques... The door to the ward is slightly ajar, and behind it, in the corridor, Rysmambetova stands, hesitant to enter. She stands and looks at the young mother. How she looks... In her eyes, wise and slightly ironic, there is both the experience of a mother and the novelty of the joy and pride of motherhood, which this happy girl, who has only just begun, does not yet understand... How many of them — so different and yet so similar — remain in memory?..
The film features many close-ups of Rysmambetova, but this one, shot from afar, as if by chance, in passing, is valuable for its psychological persuasiveness and authenticity. This is the unique property of television that V. Sappak aptly called the "X-ray" of character.
Rysmambetova's gaze, "caught" by the lens, her state, sensitively captured by the camera, not only reveal a specific character but also create precise strokes of the portrait of a modern Soviet woman — a mother, a worker, a public figure.
Alychev, the television director, started interestingly: "Autotrain," "Umutker-ezhe," "In the South of Kyrgyzstan" (script by M. Yakovlev, operators — himself and U. Djeentaev), "Kerez" (script by K. Omurkulov, operator V. Bogolyubov). The first experiments are behind. More significant and deeper qualities, nurtured in him by journalism, photo- and television chronicle, should now manifest in the works of Amanbek Alychev.
The ability to notice a moment — unique...
Of the three types of programs, subsystems of modern television: journalistic, artistic, and scientific, the first occupies a significant place in the structure of television broadcasting. It is quite natural that one of the leading genres of screen journalism — the report, as the realization of the enormous possibilities that television opened up, firmly established its place in the journalistic subsystem.
Moreover — both artistic and scientific programs are far from indifferent to this genre, as if specially born for the "event channel of video communications"...
This is why the discussion about the television film as an element of television journalism, with its compositional core being the direct report, is of considerable interest. A special discussion deserves the 20-minute film, which did not claim to make great discoveries or deep generalizations, by A. Alpiev about the autotrain to the shepherds of the Tian Shan, organized by the Sokuluk District Party Committee in the winter of 1974.
In the early 70s, in a review article about the new works of "Kyrgyztelefilm," published in the pages of "Soviet Kyrgyzstan," it was noted that the studio does not see a fundamental difference between documentary cinema and television films. I remember this statement raised concerns. The undeniable influence of the "older relative" — cinema, and the experience accumulated in all genres of daily programs (as they say — "live TV"), created this "hard-to-explain specificity" of television cinema, the absence of which is perceived as a fundamental failure of the television film.
This is why the film "Autotrain" caught attention, remembered (script by E. Borbiev, operator I. Karelin). The authors chose a technique in documentary cinema that is generally not new — a diary of a film journey.
"Autotrain" is not even a diary, rather — notes along the way, film sketches: in a remote wintering, in a yurt equipped as a cinema, boys and girls enthusiastically watch the next episode about the adventures of the resourceful Hare and the foolish Wolf; an emergency occurred — the mobile power station went under the ice, and outside it’s minus 35; the participants of the autotrain are delivering gifts from Ch. Aitmatov, A. Tokombaev, T. Sydykbekov — their books with autographs; the shepherd's wife brought a baby to see the doctor who arrived in the autotrain; visiting an old shepherd, the artists, and the hostesses — both grandmother and granddaughter — want to look especially beautiful: they are filming for the cinema, and nearby is Suymenkul Chokmorov!..
Thus, from accurately observed details, the unobtrusive voiceover text formed this film-reflection about those who work far from cities and people, in the snowy highlands, not from bell to bell. They work as they live...
One meeting, another... And with the emphasized fleetingness of them, the goal that many of those who went to distant winterings — actors, writers, journalists — strive for becomes increasingly palpable. For them, this is not a ceremonial outing for a "checkmark" in the report. "Our roots are here, and our inspiration is here, on this land," say the authors of the film. These are not just words: the mutual influence of life on the artist and artistic creativity on life is a complex and profound phenomenon that is not easy to observe. But here, on the trip to the shepherds in distant winterings, this influence is traced realistically, visibly — such are the conditions of the route, the very concept of this journey. The attempt to explore the character of the modern young shepherd, undertaken by the authors of "Autotrain," the line of cars climbing higher into the mountains, and even the very title of the film reminded me of the interesting experiments of the famous Soviet director Alexander Medvedkin. His famous "kino train," which went to the construction sites of the first five-year plan, whose agitbrigade quickly filmed the chronicle of labor everyday life...
The principle of active intervention in life, firmly established in the practice of Soviet documentary cinema back in the 30s, became a creative method for many progressive filmmakers around the world. (It is enough to recall how in France, at the initiative of one of the leading masters of French documentary cinema Chris Marker, the "Medvedkin Group" was created. The Medvedkin train — a symbol of active documentary cinema set off again).
"Autotrain" is a convincing confirmation of the conclusion that the documentary television film, having undergone the fruitful influence of direct television broadcasting, the methods of "live" television in recreating the screen image, is one of the forms of television journalism, and all its genres, in turn, becoming the basis of documentary TV, logically require the television film to adhere to its laws.
The authors of "Autotrain" were journalists: the scriptwriter worked in a youth newspaper, the host — in the agriculture department of regional television. The director — a former operator of television chronicle, the operator worked for a long time in cinema chronicle, filming stories for a newsreel.
It is precisely here, at the starting point of the creative process, that the structural closeness of the film to the information genres of television, with the heightened reliability characteristic of documentary broadcasting programs, begins.
An important genre feature of the report as a comprehensive and visual transmission of fact — the event unfolding over time, determined the ways of organizing factual material both in the shooting process and in the editing and toning.
The choice of expressive means was determined by both the practice of television and the vast experience of documentary cinema, developing the methods of D. Vertov: "direct" observation, "poetic montage," synchronous and asynchronous sound recording, and others.
The mobility of the camera, its inclination towards close-ups, expressive details, characteristic of television, allowed the use of techniques of intra- and inter-frame editing, combining methods of "live" transmission with the montage culture of cinema. The structure of the film is not alien to the film report, the capacity of which allows for the displacement of time and space necessary for any television film, especially — an 18-minute documentary about a two-week journey to remote shepherd winterings.
However, using the means of organizing material borrowed from cinema: the basic principles of shooting and sound recording, editing, which has greater spatial-temporal possibilities compared to television editing, and the counterpoint construction of the audio-visual image, the authors did not forget the main, defining aspect of work for television — the conditions of perception of the television program, the peculiarities of the psychology of the television viewer.
How did the structure of the film influence its style, what are the main ways of organizing the event material here?
"Kyrgyztelefilm". Television and Cinematography of Kyrgyzstan in the 70s—early 80s. Part-4