Mikhail Kaufman (1897-1980)

Alias:
Кауфман Михайло Абрамович
Михаил Кауфман
Михайло Кауфман

Birthplace:
Bialystok, Grodno Province, Russian Empire (now Poland)

Born:
September 5, 1897

Died:
November 3, 1980

Mikhail Kaufman was a Soviet cinematographer and photographer. In the 1920s, after Mikhail Kaufman returned from the Russian Civil War, his brother director Dziga Vertov offered him the opportunity to participate in his newsreel series Kino-Pravda as a cameraman.  Kaufman directed photography for several films, including Vertov's Man with the Movie Camera. The film is built around meta-reference and is full of innovative visual effects: in it, Kaufman acts as a cameraman and is seen shooting the film while walking on high bridges, hanging off the side of a train, climbing a smokestack and crawling underground with miners – all in order to get the best shot.  Mikhail Kaufman directed three films: Moscow (1927), In Spring (1929), and An Unprecedented Campaign (1931).

Additional information:

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Assistant Director:
1926  A Sixth Part of the World

Camera Operator:
1926  A Sixth Part of the World
1939  Our Moscow

Director:
1926  A Sixth Part of the World
1927  Moscow
1929  In Spring
1931  An Unprecedented Campaign
1933  A Great Victory
1939  Our Moscow
1945  Earth in space
1955  Halo story
1964  Planet of secrets

Director of Photography:
1922  Kino-Pravda No. 6
1923  Kino-Pravda No. 17: For the First Agricultural and Cottage Industries Exhibition in the USSR
1924  Kino Eye
1924  Kino-Pravda No. 18
1924  Kino-Pravda No. 20
1925  Kino-Pravda No. 21
1925  Kino-Pravda No. 22: Lenin Is Alive in the Heart of the Peasant. A Film Story
1925  Kino-Pravda No. 23
1926  A Sixth Part of the World
1927  Moscow
1928  The Eleventh Year
1929  In Spring
1929  Man with a Movie Camera
1931  An Unprecedented Campaign
1933  A Great Victory
1939  Our Moscow
1945  Earth in space
1955  Halo story
1964  Planet of secrets

Title Designer:
1922  Kino-Pravda No. 6
1923  Kino-Pravda No. 15
1923  Kino-Pravda No. 17: For the First Agricultural and Cottage Industries Exhibition in the USSR
1924  Kino Eye
1924  Kino-Pravda No. 18
1924  Kino-Pravda No. 20
1925  Kino-Pravda No. 21
1925  Kino-Pravda No. 22: Lenin Is Alive in the Heart of the Peasant. A Film Story
1925  Kino-Pravda No. 23
1926  A Sixth Part of the World
1927  Moscow
1928  The Eleventh Year
1929  In Spring
1929  Man with a Movie Camera
1931  An Unprecedented Campaign
1933  A Great Victory
1939  Our Moscow
1945  Earth in space
1955  Halo story
1964  Planet of secrets

Writer:
1922  Kino-Pravda No. 6
1923  Kino-Pravda No. 15
1923  Kino-Pravda No. 17: For the First Agricultural and Cottage Industries Exhibition in the USSR
1924  Kino Eye
1924  Kino-Pravda No. 18
1924  Kino-Pravda No. 20
1925  Kino-Pravda No. 21
1925  Kino-Pravda No. 22: Lenin Is Alive in the Heart of the Peasant. A Film Story
1925  Kino-Pravda No. 23
1926  A Sixth Part of the World
1927  Moscow
1928  The Eleventh Year
1929  In Spring
1929  Man with a Movie Camera
1931  An Unprecedented Campaign
1933  A Great Victory
1939  Our Moscow
1945  Earth in space
1955  Halo story
1964  Planet of secrets

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  • Regarding those polls wherein "franchise" movies were submitted as one project until BFI's policy changed to regard them separately, I treated them as ties and renumbered the affected lists accordingly (e.g. the Godfather films).

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