Lendoc

Saint Petersburg Documentary Films Studio (Open Film Studio Lendoc)
Company typeCorporation
IndustryFilm industry
Founded1932
HeadquartersSaint Petersburg, Russian Federation
Websitelendocstudio.com

Saint Petersburg Documentary Films Studio or Lendoc (Russian: Лендок) is one of the largest documentary film studios in Russia, founded in 1932 as “Leningrad Newsreel Studio”.[1][2][3] The studio continued to work during the Siege of Leningrad and it produced the very first documentary about the siege “Leningrad In Fight" (Ленинград в борьбе).[4] The films produced on Lendoc have received numerous awards on Soviet and International film festivals.[5][6]

Annual output through 1980-is included 40 documentaries, 9-10 newsreels, stories for the “Daily News" (Новости дня) news program and up to 50 commercials.[7] The studio was affected by the crisis caused by the dissolution of the USSR, however it managed to overcome it and produced over 100 documentaries since 2001.[8]

History

Cinema industry was growing fast in Imperial Russia and documentaries were amongst the most popular genres: up to 70% of total films produced in the Russian Empire on the eve of WWI were documentaries.[9][10]

After the Bolshevik revolution, Petrograd movie theaters and studios were nationalised and put under the management of the newly organized Petrograd Kinokomitet cinema committee. Later, two studios were created - Lenfilm and Lennauchfilm; in 1932 Lenfilm's (named Soyuzkino at the time) newsreel section was transformed into Leningrad Newsreel Studio.[11]

Members of the Studio were awarded with the “Stalin prize” for “Mannerheim Line" (Линия Маннергейма) documentary about Winter War.[12]

Leningrad Newsreel Studio continued to work during the Siege of Leningrad. At that time it employed several famous Soviet directors and сinematographers: Anatoliy Pogoreliy, Sergey Fomin, Yefim Uchitel, Vladimer Stradin, Nikolay Blazhkov, Evgeniy Shapiro.[13] The studio produced over 120 films during that time.[14]

In 1942 the studio finished the first documentary about the Siege of Leningrad “Leningrad in Fight” (Ленинград в борьбе).[4] In 1943 Valeriy Solovtsov, Anselm Bogorov, Anatoliy Pogorelov, Vladimir Stradin and Yefim Uchitel received the “Stalin prize” for the documentary.[15]

"Leningrad in Fight"

In 1946 the studio was moved to its current location - "house of Senator Polovtsov" on Kryukov Kanal.[11]

In 1966 Studio employees managed to illegally film the funeral of Anna Akhmatova, any recording of which was prohibited by Soviet authorities since she was considered an unofficial leader of the dissident movement.[16]

In 1970-s Lendoс filmed some documentaries outside of the USSR, for example, “These Restless Students” (Это беспокойное студенчество) (1974) was filmed in the US, France, West Germany, and the UK.[17]

Some films were rejected by the Communist censorship and were premiered only after the Perestroyka and dissolution of the USSR. They included Alexander Sokurov's documentary “And nothing more” (И ничего больше) and Nikolay Obukhovich's “Our Mother is a Hero” (Наша мама - герой).[18][19]

In 1998 the first album of the rock band Leningrad was recorded in the studio.[20]

In 2013 the Lendoc creative space was opened on the studio grounds, housing a culture center, movie theater, cinema museum, and a movie school.

Lendoc today

Lendoс is cooperating with European and British studios and TV channels: BBC, Channel 4, Deutsche Welle, ZDF, Yle.[21]

In addition to the documentaries, it produces live-action movies, animation, commercials, and corporate videos.[22]

House of Senator Polovtsov, current Lendoc location

List of the studio executives

List of the studio executives is composed in accordance with the records of Saint Petersburg Central State Cinema Archive

  • Iosif Veneaminovich Hmelnitskiy (1932-1938);
  • Vladimir Fyodorovich Orlov (1938);
  • Dmitriy Aleksandrovich Dalskiy (1938-1940);
  • G.S. Halipov (1940-1942);[1]
  • Valeriy Mikhailovich Solovtsov (1944-1945, 1964-1969);
  • Nikolay Andrianovich Timofeev (1945-1947);
  • Yakov Usherovich Nusimovich (1947);
  • Andrey Rodionovich Polyakov (1947-1950, 1950-1952);
  • Boris Alekseevich Medvedev (1950-1951);
  • Viktor Nikolaevich Fatyanov (1952-1964);
  • Valeriy Nikolaevich Ryabinskiy (1969-1996);
  • Vladilen Ivanovich Kuzin (1971-1996);
  • Anatoliy Victorovich Nikiforov (1996-1998);
  • Vyacheslav Nikolaevich Telnov (1998-2007);
  • Alexey Nikolaevich Telnov (since 2007)

Notes

1.^ In some sources the initials are S.G.

References

  1. ^ "Киноиндустрия Российской федерации. Ноябрь 2009" [Movie industry of the Russian Federation. November 2009] (in Russian). Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  2. ^ "Киноиндустрия Российской федерации. Ноябрь 2012" [Movie industry of the Russian Federation. November 2012] (in Russian). Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  3. ^ "Киноиндустрия Российской федерации. Декабрь 2014" [Movie industry of the Russian Federation. April 2014] (PDF) (in Russian). Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  4. ^ a b Глезеров С. (2019-01-16). "Кино и блокада Ленинграда: история вопроса" [Cinema and the siege of Leningrad. historical background] (in Russian). Санкт-Петербургские ведомости. Archived from the original on 2019-12-20. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
  5. ^ "Награды-лучшим" [Rewards are for the best] (PDF). Советская культура (in Russian). No. 64. 1960-05-21. p. 4. Retrieved 2020-04-20.
  6. ^ Хрущева, Л. (1981-07-03). "Киноленты о гуманизме" [Movies about humanism] (PDF). Советская культура (in Russian). No. 53. p. 7.
  7. ^ "Ленинградская Студия Документальных Фильмов" [Leningrad Documentary Films Studio] (in Russian). Кино. Энциклопедический словарь. Retrieved 2020-01-16.
  8. ^ Кочетова, Юлия; Гуркаленко, Валентина. "Киностудии" [Movie Studios] (in Russian). Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  9. ^ Зоркая Н. М. "Cinema в России" [Cinema in Russia]. Серебряные девятьсот десятые (in Russian). Портал «Слово». Archived from the original on 2012-01-04. Retrieved 2020-01-14.
  10. ^ Семенова, Е.Ю (2007). "Кинематограф - феномен отечественной культуры в годы Первой мировой войны (по материалам поволжских губерний)" [Cinema as a phenomenon of Russian culture during WWI (sources from Volga guberniyas)]. Известия Самарского научного центра РАН (in Russian). 9 (2). Retrieved 2020-04-20.
  11. ^ a b Зуев, Г.И. (2012). Там, где Крюков канал [Where the Kryukov Kanal is] (in Russian). Moscow: Центрполиграф. ISBN 978-5457088962.
  12. ^ "О присуждении Сталинских премий за выдающиеся работы в области искусства и литературы" [On awarding outstanding works in arts and literature with Stalin prizes] (PDF). Литературная газета (in Russian). No. 11. 1941-03-16. p. 2. Retrieved 2020-04-20.
  13. ^ Соболев, Г.Л. (2013). Ленинград в борьбе за выживание в блокаде. Книга первая: июнь 1941 — май 1942 [Leningrad in struggle for survival under the siege. Book One: June 1941 - May 1942] (in Russian). Saint Petersburg: СПбГУ. ISBN 9785040866915.
  14. ^ "Блокада: Ленинградская объединенная киностудия" [The siege: Leningrad United Movie Studio] (in Russian). Archived from the original on 2019-12-21. Retrieved 2019-12-21.
  15. ^ "Постановление Совета народных комиссаров СССР о присуждении Сталинской премии" [The Resolution of the USSR Council of People's Commissars on the awarding with Stalin Prize]. Известия (in Russian). No. 66. 1943-03-20. p. 1. Archived from the original on 2019-12-20. Retrieved 2020-04-20.
  16. ^ "Соломон. Воспоминания о Соломоне Шустере" [Solomon. Memories of Solomon Shuster] (in Russian). Retrieved 2019-01-22.
  17. ^ "Беспокойное студенчество" [Restless Students] (PDF). Советская культура (in Russian). No. 32. 1974-04-19. p. 5. Retrieved 2020-04-20.
  18. ^ "Преодоление. В Эрмитаже показали запрещенный в советское время фильм Александра Сокурова" [The Overcome. Alexander Sokurov's Movie Banned at Soviet Times Shown in the Hermitage]. Российская Газета (in Russian). No. 6073. 2013-05-08. p. 3. Archived from the original on 2013-09-12. Retrieved 2020-04-20.
  19. ^ "Президентская библиотека демонстрирует фильмы "с полки"" [Presidential Library Shows Films "Off the Shelf"] (in Russian). Президентская библиотека имени Б. Н. Ельцина. Retrieved 2020-01-18.
  20. ^ Бурлака, Андрей Петрович (2007). Рок-энциклопедия. Популярная музыка в Ленинграде – Петербурге. 1965–2005, Том 2 [Rock encyclopedia. Popular music in Leningrad/Saint Petersburg. 1965-2005, Vol. Two] (in Russian). Saint Petersburg: Амфора. ISBN 9785457771178.
  21. ^ "Росимущество приватизирует старейшую российскую киностудию — "Лендок"" [Rosimuschestvo Privatizes Lendoc, the Oldest Russian Movie Studio] (in Russian). Росбалт. Archived from the original on 2016-05-06. Retrieved 2020-01-23.
  22. ^ "Как работает единственная в России документальная киностудия" [How does the only documentary film studio in Russia operates]. Российская Газета (in Russian). 2019-08-30. Retrieved 2020-04-20.