Quick Facts
Biography
Yelizaveta Ignatevna Svilova (Russian: Елизаве́та Игна́тьевна Сви́лова, rendered in Latin as Elizaveta Svilova) (5 September 1900, Moscow – 11 November 1975, Moscow) was a Russian filmmaker and film editor.
She was a lifelong collaborator with her husband, Dziga Vertov. She is best known as the supervising editor on Man with a Movie Camera and for appearing in the film.
Council of Three
She was part of the "Council of Three," with her husband and brother-in-law, cinematographer Mikhail Kaufman. Together, they "proclaimed a 'death sentence' on the cinema that came before, faulting it for mixing in 'foreign matter' from theater and literature."
Auschwitz
She covered the opening of Auschwitz death camp in Poland by the Red Army in January 1945. She filmed a documentary, notably with reenactments, titled Auschwitz, part of an exhibition titled "Filming the War; the Soviets and the Holocaust (1941-1946)" (9 January 2015 – 27 September 2015) in Paris, France, at the Memorial de la Shoah.
Selected works
- Kino-Pravda [Russian: Кино-Правда] (1920s)
- Cinema Eye [Russian: Кино-глаз or Kino-Glaz] (1924) - Editor
- A Sixth Part of the World [Russian: Шестая часть мира or Shestaya chast mira] (1926) - 2nd Unit/Assistant Director
- Forward, Soviet! [Russian Шагай, Совет! or Shagay, sovet!] (1926) - 2nd Unit/Assistant Director
- The Oath of Youth [Russian: Клятва молодых or Klyatva molodykh] (1928) - Director
- The Eleventh Year [Russian:Одиннадцатый 00 Odinnadtsatyi] (1928) - 2nd Unit/Assistant Director
- Man with a Movie Camera [Russian: Человек с киноаппаратом or Chelovek s kino-apparatom] (1929) - Editor
- Enthusiasm [Russian: Энтузиазм: Цимфония Донбасса or Entuziazm: Simfoniya Donbassa] (1930) - 2nd Unit/Assistant Director
- Three Songs of Lenin [Russian: Три песни о Ленине, Tri pesni o Lenine] (1934) - 2nd Unit/Assistant Director
- The Fall of Berlin [Russian: Берлин] (1945) - Director
- Parade of Youth [Russian: Парад молодости or Parad molodosti] (1946) - Director
- Nuremberg Trials [Russian: Суд народов or Sud narodov] (1947) - Director