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from the dominance of this archetype as well as from independent attempts
to challenge the authority implied in the historical documentary and to posit
alternative forms.
Te rmi na l Time
, as an exploration of the documentary form, has two points
of entry. One is theoretical analyses of ideological structuring in mass media,
in particular those made by Soviet filmmakers active in the early revolutionary
period. In those early years of cinema, a great deal of experimentation took
place;
Te rmi na l Time
is indebted to those early pioneers of the film arts for
their spirited quest to understand the ideological impact of their works. The
second point of entry is the present homogeneity of mass media which reflects
corporate ownership of media and domination over cultural institutions.
Historical roots for theoretical critique
V. I. Lenin, the leader of the Russian Revolution in 1917, encouraged the use of
film as a political tool. Subsequently, Soviet filmmaking became established
as an influential international model (Schnitzer, Schnitzer & Martin 1973).
In those “astonishing and wonderful days” (Schnitzer, Schnitzer & Martin
1973: 13) of the early Soviet art world, filmmakers Lev Kuleshov, Dziga Vertov,
Sergei Eisenstein, Esfir Schub and others created new visual languages. Within
the context of the tumultuous expansion of Soviet art in general, and strong
political support given to filmmakers in particular, the artists spoke and wrote
about the theoretical challenges they faced, making important early analyses of
the medium.
Filmmaker Lev Kuleshov is remembered for his deliberate tests of film edit-
ing the effect of on audience perception. He demonstrated that identical images
can be used to mean very different things by pairing them with other imagery
and narrative (Bordwell & Thompson 1997: 281). He found that it is the order-
ing of visual data that defines the meaning of mass media. The one who con-
trols the order, controls the message.
Te rmi na l Time
explores the “Kuleshov
effect” even further by examining how meaning of imagery can be changed
when juxtaposing it against different narrative texts. In fact, the Kuleshov ef-
fect makes this project possible. Imagery is plastic - a relatively small number
of different video clips can illustrate a wide range of narratives.
Early newsreel producer Dziga Vertov challenged the medium with his
original form of self-referential journalism; his goal was “to break out of the
proscenium of the theater and to enter the arena of life itself.” Vertov strove for
kino-pravda, or “cinema-truth.” He abhorred staged action and stated his mis-
sion to be “the creation of a new perception of the world” (Barnouw 1983: 58-
