Mikhail Kaufman
Directing
Born September 5, 1897 · Bialystok, Grodno Province, Russian Empire (now Poland)
Died November 3, 1980
Also known as Михаил Кауфман · Кауфман Михайло Абрамович · Михайло Кауфман
Biography
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).
Awards & recognition
- Honored art worker of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
- Medal "For Valiant Labour in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"
- VDNKh bronze medal
