BOOK NOTES

Scholar provides definitive account of Dovzhenko's life in Soviet film

"Alexander Dovzhenko: A Life in Soviet Film," by George O. Liber. London: British Film Institute, 2002; (distributed in North America by the University of California Press). 320 pp., 41 b/w illus., ISBN 0-85170-927-3; $58 (cloth).

BERKELEY, Calif. - Alexander Dovzhenko, along with Sergei Eisenstein and Vsevolod Pudovkin, became one of the major pioneers of Soviet filmmaking. During his 30-year career, his films - including "Zvenyhora," "Arsenal" "Zemlia"(Earth), and "Ivan" - won international acclaim and have become classics of the silent and early sound eras.

Combining images from Ukrainian history and folklore, stark realism, visual poetry, propaganda, and gentle humor, Dovzhenko's films celebrated nature and man's relationship to the land.

Based on archival research in Moscow and Kyiv and interviews with Dovzhenko's colleagues and students, George E. Liber provides the first definitive account in any language of this important director's personal and professional life. Prof. Liber's biography explores the political context of Dovzhenko's filmmaking, investigates the divisions between his public and private worlds, and analyzes his struggles within and against the Stalinist system.

"Alexander Dovzhenko: A Life in Soviet Film" may be purchased over the Internet from the following: http://www.bfi.ucpress.edu/; (outside of North America), http://www.bfi.com.uk/ (in North America).

George O. Liber is associate professor of history at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and author of "Soviet Nationality Policy, Urban Growth and Identity Change in the Ukrainian SSR" (1992). He holds an M.A. in Soviet studies from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in history from Columbia University (1986).

Prof. Liber took part as Dovzhenko scholar and commentator in the film program titled "Earth - The Films of Alexander Dovzhenko" held October 3, 5 and 8 in Los Angeles, as a joint presentation by the UCLA Film and Television Archives and the Hollywood Trident Foundation as well as at the launch of the Dovzhenko series at the National Gallery in Washington, on December 14.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, December 29, 2002, No. 52, Vol. LXX

| Home Page |