#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. The first film vans wandered around the Yenisey Arctic for almost a year and really brought “art to the masses”. It’s interesting that the note also mentions Norilsk. But they called it Narymsk – such a spelling was found at the beginning of the last century in rare publications about our region. And nearby you can see the ‘Norilsk Collective Farm Named after the Red Army’ – it was located in the Norilsky settlement, which later was called Chasovnya. Below is the full text of that amazing testimony of time.
“The weak point in film work among Siberian national minorities is the film service to the peoples of the Siberian North. In particular, the cinematography of the Turuhansk region is still in its infancy. Now only the Dudinsky moving film truck and stationary installations in Turuhansk, Vorogov and Imbatsky are working. But all these four film units are working poorly and with long interruptions due to the lack of films and repairs.
In order to find out the possibilities for further cinematography development in the Turuhansk region, two film mobiles were sent there in July last year. Projectionists from the Siberian branch of Soyuzkino Fomin and Klyuev worked in the North for about a year. Fomin’s first film truck worked along the route Yeniseisk – Nazimovo – Yartsevo – Vorogovo – settlements along the Podkamennaya Tunguska river – Verhneimbatsk – Turuhansk – Igarka – Dudinka – Narymsk and along the Hatanga tract to Labaz. Second: from Dudinka in the lower reaches of the Yenisey – Ust-Yenisey port – Tolsty Nos – Ostrovki. Film trucks served more than 11 thousand people of the Russian population and over 1 400 native (Samoyeds, Ostyaks, Tungus, Yuraks and others), 7 native and 28 Russian hunting groups, including the Norilsk Collective Farm named after the Red Army.
That almost year-long film tour to the Turuhansk region was of an experimental reconnaissance nature and generally yielded positive results (except the commercial side of course).
Mechanics in populated areas gave about 40 reports on the international situation, the state five-year plan and held over 300 conversations on political and economic topics. Campaign work was carried out to distribute the industrialization loan.
The native population in especially remote places greeted the movie with frightened exclamations: “The great shaman has arrived! What a disaster!” But after the explanations, the natives helped pull the screen onto the trochees (poles used to drive deer) and watched the films shown (especially newsreels) with great curiosity.
But as soon as (in feature films) a kissing couple appeared on the screen, a commotion arose among the audience: “What a sin!” – and the native men drove the women away from the screen. The film Into the Taiga for a Meteorite created a great sensation among the Tungus, especially when the viewers recognized their relatives, filmed with the expedition of professor Kulik.
The most important thing in those expeditions was the strict selection of good, strong films. This is what those film trucks were equipped with: Everywhere and Always There Is Trouble For the Illiterate (a propaganda comedy received by Russian and native audiences better than all other films), Into the Taiga for a Meteorite, The Case of Tariele Maklavadze (a film that had to be sent back , since no one wanted to watch it), Two Days and Leon the Couturier (psychological dramas from the civil war era), Under the Adat Rule (an unsuccessful example of an anti-religious film, especially for the natives of the North), four issues of Sovkino-magazine, and the most acceptable film was only Cement”.
In the History Spot photo project’s previous publication, we told how snow choked the construction of Norilsk.
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Text: Svetlana Ferapontova, Photo: Nornickel Polar Branch archive
