Having highlighted Ukrainian and Ukraine-related films in the Klassiki database last week, I should also take the chance to mention some of the books we have about Ukrainian film.

First of all, the Ukrainian directors mentioned last time.  Books and films in Cambridge libraries about and by…

• Oleksandr Dovz︠h︡enko (1894-1956) are at this link
• Kira Muratova (1934-2018) are at this link
• Sergeĭ Paradz︠h︡anov (1924-1990) are at this link
  • Paradz︠h︡anov (Paradjanov, Parajanov) was not formally Ukrainian but had significant Ukrainian familial and professional ties.  He was an Armenian director and artist who was born in Georgia and whose film career was based in Ukraine; all three countries take huge pride in their connection with him.  This mix is seen in our collections, with one of the three latest additions published in Armenia (a catalogue of his art and his letters from prison (he was imprisoned for over 4 years in total)) and the third in Ukraine.

In terms of books about Ukrainian cinema more generally, here are some of the more recent additions to the catalogue.

• Ukrainian cinema : belonging and identity during the Soviet Thaw / Joshua First. (2019 ebook (also available in print))
• Perervanyĭ polit : ukraïnsʹke kino chasiv VUFKU : sproba rekonstrukt︠s︡iï [Interrupted flight : Ukrainian cinema of the era of VUFKU* : an attempt at reconstruction] / Larysa Bri︠u︡khovet︠s︡ʹka. (2018)
• Kino narodz︠h︡ene Ukraïnoi︠u︡ : ili︠u︡strovana istorii︠a︡ [Cinema born by Ukraine : an illustrated history] / Serhiĭ Trymbach. (2016)
• Contested interpretations of the past in Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian film : screen as battlefield / edited by Sander Brouwer. (2016)
• Polsko-ukraińskie sąsiedztwo na ekranie filmowym = Pol’sko-ukraïns’ke susidstvo na kinematohrafichnomu ekrani [Polish-Ukrainian adjacency/relations (literally “neighbourhood”) on the film screen]. (2016)

*VUFKU = Vseukraïnsʹke foto kinoupravlinni︠a︡ = All-Ukrainian Photo Cinema Administration, a hugely influential and productive if short-lived enterprise which ran from 1922 to 1930.  It produced the two Dovz︠h︡enko films in Klassiki, mentioned last time – Earth and Love’s Berries – and scores more, including Dziga Vertov’s Man with Movie Camera.  We have a 1970s microfilm of VUFKU’s journal, Foto kino (catalogue record here).

We always welcome recommendations for important books about cinema that we haven’t already got, at recommendations@lib.cam.ac.uk

Mel Bach