Educational Movies About Theory and History of Cinema (exclusive videos)

8 educational movies about theory and history of cinema from the Locarno Festival "Silver Leopard" winner — Darezhan Omirbaev.

Darezhan Omirbaev — Soviet and Kazakh filmmaker.

In 1980 he graduated from the applied mathematics department of the Kazakh State University. He worked as a teacher and programmer and also was an editor at «KazakhFilm» studio. He studied at the department of film directing at VGIK. In 1987 he graduated from the cinema studies department of the same university (A. Plakhov workshop). Since 1988 — he was a producer at the «Kazakhfilm» studio. Wrote several works on the film theory, published at «New Film», «CineFantom» magazines and others.

IMDb | Films on MUBI

The author and project manager — Darezhan Omirbaev
Project team: Murat Mahan, Olga Korotko, Aibek Kudabaev, Sergei Litovchenko.

1. Sisters

"Cinema is a painting, presented as music" Jean-Luc Godard

This educational film for students of cinema department is about the relationship of the two similar arts in their graphic nature — painting and cinema. This film presents vivid examples of reminiscences of painting art in cinema: compiled known cases posing frames by authors of world cinema, based on the composition of paintings by famous artists. Of course the main point here is not to repeat or mechanically transferred paintings to screen, but the ability to pass through cinema the atmosphere and beauty of the paintings that inspired the filmmaker.

2. Reverances

"I am stealing from Vigo so many years and there is no end of stealing". Federico Fellini.

Zhien — grandchildren from daughter's side. Children born from daughter are not successors of her family, but they are genus of the family of her husband, so that children separately called "Zhien". It is noteworthy that in the Kazakh tradition "Zhien", i.e. any grandson from daughter's side can take from his grandfather's home whatever he want without the permission of the owner.

Educational film — Zhiender" ("Curtsy") tells about the impact of the filmmakers to each other, which can be expressed as the randomly — in the sense of creative borrowing or citation, and involuntarily, such as "theft" and may not be a coincidence. However, it should remember that you can "steal" this way all things excepting a style that is directly related to the individual vision of the author.

3. Dreams in Cinema

Dreams — is a very popular theme in cinema. Perhaps it is because dreams — is primarily a visual object. For centuries, dreams play a special, mystical role. A man in a dream may see his fantasies and dreams. or, conversely, hidden fears - and problems. Often dreams predict the future, or help us find a solution in a difficult situation. That is why in the arts of many people of the world dreams have a special role. Shooting "dreams- in their films. most filmmakers freely express their vision, bringing to cinematic language specific information about which one can't speak directly. This theme in cinema contributes to find and use an interesting artistic discoveries and techniques, destroying the logic of the narrative and expanding the boundaries of the imagination of the filmmaker.

4. Sex in Cinema

Sex in cinema has its own filmic specify. not only because of the instinct. More giant exposure has a hint of sex. or play with imagination. which is the basis of cinematic art. Direct display of sex is a pornography. but the skillful use of the power of this instinct on the screen can compose interesting and very beautiful visual solutions.

5. Poetry in Cinema

The process of making a film by director is akin to creating and writing poems by poet. Just as a poet takes the existing language in words and using them in a certain way, create a poem, film director also takes on the movie camera existing in reality objects, houses, nature, people, and by editing all that as he needs, he create a film. That is the essential similarity provides films and poetry maximum possible connection.

6. Death in Cinema

Certainly, the "death" is one of the most common cinematic themes. The theme of death and violence always raises many filmmakers in a variety of ways: death as a natural end of life or her understanding, death as fear of existence, death as a challenge thrown by life — suicide, death as murder, i.e. violent death, and so on. This was not because the filmmakers are morally flawed people, but because these themes (death, violence, sex) are very objects for film shooting, so like they want to be on screen. That is why there is the special responsibility on the authors of such scenes.

7. Autographs

A series of educational films "Autographs"is a textbook for students of cinema department, which is dedicated to the works of great authors of world cinema. These films show and explore the most colorful and unique pieces that are typical and repetitive directorial techniques from the films (scenes), which are important in the work of one or another author. In the process of viewing and analysis of educational films, students studying filmmaking, film studies, as well as the cinematography, will be able to become better acquainted with the work of the filmmakers of world cinema — identify important artistic techniques and visual solutions, which subsequently formed a different directions in the cinema, and made the foundation of the evolution of "cinema language". "Autographs" promote deeper study of the existing methods of film direction, and help to identify and compare in a condensed form the features of the style, filmmakers "handwriting", "Autographs" include a series of educational films, manuals on a brief study of the works of such distinguished filmmakers as Jean Vigo, Michelangelo Antonioni, Alfred Hitchcock, Ingmar Bergman. Andrei Tarkovsky, Robert Bresson and others.

8. Bayge

"Bayge" (in Kazakh language) — a competition, a contest. This educational film for students of cinema department is about how the same content of scenes is shooting by well-known directors in their different films. Such monitoring helps to identify, define and compare the features of style and direction of an author. The three parts of the educational film show scenes shot on base of works of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment", "White Nights" and Leo Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina".

"Crime and Punishment"