Efim Uchitel - biography

Efim Uchitel (born October, 15 (28), 1913, in Tiraspol’, died, 1988 in Moscow). Soviet cameraman and motion-picture director who specialized in documentaries. People’s Artist of the USSR (1976).

Uchitel’ studied in the department of camera operation at the Leningrad Institute of Motion-picture Engineers from 1930 to 1935. He was among the cameramen who shot the film The Mannerheim Line (1940). During the Great Patriotic War (1941–45) he was a cameraman at the front and helped shoot and direct several films, including Struggling Leningrad (1942) Breaking the Blockade of Leningrad (1944), Berlin (1945), and Victory March (1945).

More recently, Uchitel’ has directed The Russian Character (1958), Daughters of Russia (1960), Peace on Your House (1961), Workers’ Stories (1965), Leningrad the Hero-City (1974), and Fidelity (1974). The films Struggling Leningrad and The Klooga Death Camp (1944) were shown as evidence at the Nuremberg Trials.

In 1964, Uchitel’ became artistic director of the first creative association at the Leningrad Documentary Film Studio. A recipient of the State Prize of the USSR (1943), and the Vasil’ev Brothers State Prize of the RSFSR (1967), he was awarded the Order of Lenin, two other orders, and various medals.