Ethnographic motifs in the works of directors of the Ural school of documentary cinema

This article examines one of the prominent trends in the works of directors from the Ural (Yekaterinburg) school of documentary cinema and filmmaking: the ethnographic one. This is the focus of our research, a topic that has typically been studied through the lens of individual directors. Our aim is to identify, within the scope of this article, the common and distinctive features of the entire ethnographic movement in Ural documentary cinema by analyzing the works of several filmmakers collectively. The analysis spans from the founder, Alexander Litvinov, who in the 1920s-1940s made documentary films about the peoples and nature of the Russian Far East and Siberia - often in collaboration with the eminent scientist, explorer, and writer Vladimir Arsenyev (who later became the subject of the great Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's famous film Dersu Uzala) - to directors working at the turn of the 21st century: Arkady Morozov, Anatoly Baluev, and Andrey Anchugov, who captured the life and traditions of peoples in remote Russian territories, primarily the Northern Urals. Today, this tradition is upheld by other directors, notably representatives of the Golovnev dynasty; the world-renowned director Alexey Fedorchenko, who leans towards the mockumentary genre; filmmakers from the “Snega” studio, adept chroniclers of everyday life like Pavel Fattakhutdinov and Andrey Titov with their extensive cycle The Great Rivers of Siberia; as well as Natalia Savras, the author of aesthetically nuanced “journeys into the self”, constructed around the study of the Gagauz national community and the Pomor village. Thus, the object of our study is ethnographic cinema as such, with the focus on the ethnographic trend within the works of Ural documentary filmmakers. The novelty of the research lies in revealing the uniqueness and rich potential of the Ural film school, which has for decades synthesized two streams: one grounded in the methodology of “visual anthropology”, and the other in pure documentary filmmaking. The distinctions between these two approaches are evident, though not always acknowledged by some authors. Our findings reveal that the works of directors belonging to the Ural documentary school are undoubtedly unique, yet they share common traits. Some delve deeply into events and personal destinies, feeling a genuine kinship with their subjects, while others observe indigenous peoples and their customs with an inquisitive, more detached perspective. Common to all, however, is extensive field expedition experience; a true research interest in depicting people living in conditions often far removed from civilization; and, to varying degrees, the presence of both artistic and philosophical dimensions in their creative output. The aforementioned conclusions, derived through our application of observation, comparison, analysis, and synthesis, allow us to classify all the mentioned directors as part of a unified movement within Ural documentary cinema. The authors declare no conflicts of interests.

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