Chyornaya kozha (1930) - full transcript
A Black American worker travels to the USSR and experiences the racial solidarity of Soviet life.
Black Skin
(aka The Conveyor)
Kyiv Film Studio "Ukrainfilm", 1931
Screenwriter:
Dmitriy Urin
Director:
Pavel Kolomoytsev
Cinematographer:
Ivan Shekker
Production design:
Iosif Shpinel
Newspapers report:
Moscow, July 6th, 1931
The Superior Board
of the People's Economy
appoints comrade
Kremnev Sergey Artemyevich
as a director
of the new colossal car factory.
Moscow, July 5th, 1931
Due to the general recession
Ford "temporarily" cuts production.
Who made all these cars?
No. Not Ford.
Three ? of many.
Mary...
(Vera Koroleva)
Tom...
(Kador Ben-Salim)
Sam...
(Vyacheslav Gomolyaka)
An overall crisis in industries
and markets compels us...
...to cut production.
Dismissed.
All the dismissed.
We're told that America flourishes...
And yet they throw us out on the streets
of our flourishing motherland.
But they won't fool us with words.
A car for every American.
For every American ? a car.
Fuel for a day, tobacco for a minute.
Glory to organized capitalism...
A car for every American.
Capitalism on rubber tires ?
the same kind of capitalism.
We must fight ? all together.
Americans
are you together...
...with niggers?..
Are you together with the scum
that steals your jobs?
And against who?
Against Ford, the true American?
SHAME ON YOU
I think he's right. If not for them,
we would have enough jobs.
Don't be stupid. It's not about
other workers, it's about our owners.
There is a country. Proletarians
of the world work there without masters.
Labor agency of USSR.
Jobs offered.
Jobs offered.
Well, Sam, let's go to the country
where the workers are their own masters.
Where would I go?
My motherland is here. My home is here.
Motherland
Dick, unemployed...
Took his own life... Out of hunger.
Home
Mr. Smith, your bill for your car,
flat and furniture is due today...
If you don't pay ? tomorrow
you'll have no flat, furniture, or car.
TOMORROW
Use Swift's ham
Only clean shaved man
has a chance of getting employment.
Buy
Cheap
10% discount
No bread
Forget it, let them eat.
Nobody's buying anyway.
No buyers
No jobs
Labor agency of USSR.
Jobs offered.
What's waiting for us
beyond the sea?
A good country is waiting.
Nobody is unemployed there...
they say...
Everybody is equal.
Except for black scum.
Across wide seas
Across wide lands
To a new country.
The country is growing.
Hello! Auto! Taxi! Motor!
One horsepower motor.
At the new place.
Nice fabric,
you can see it's not ours.
"Kyiv Tailor"
Vorovskay St., 24
Are you from America, comrades?
Your country is strange.
Some old horse took us to the car factory.
The Soviet Union is much more than that.
These are remnants of the past.
A year ago
On a deserted and desolate plain
our colossal car factory was founded.
Thousands of cars for the workers
of USSR will be made here.
Now this is what The Soviet Union is.
In the dormitory
Mikhail Kalinin, The All-Union Elder
The President is the man.
Meet your translator.
Proletarians ? even if Americans too.
Forget it, brother. We've done away with
these kind of things.
First night under a new roof.
Well, how do you like that.
What? A negro in the American's room...
Call for a meeting tomorrow.
Why?
Just because he's black?
Who will say it?
He has insulted his comrade
just because of his black skin.
That's capitalist training!
Boycott
You're not thinking, Sam.
Look around and think of what you see.
Who is that?
This is our director.
Your Ford.
You're Ford too.
We're all Fords here.
How do you achieve that?
You have to be udarnik ?
a champion worker.
I want to become one.
A new udarnik.
Remember! 2000 machines
to the end of the quarter.
Today, 18th August,
the factory theater
is showing the play
"The last decisive".
After the show ? everyone
storms the breakthrough!!!
It was the last part of the play.
The first battle of the future war.
We're not dead
You can't defeat the proletariat
The first brave people died...
But behind them ? the proletariat
of the Union and the whole world.
Comrades, let's check. Rise up, those
who are ready to defend our Union.
But there's no war happening.
But we are at the front.
The five-year plan
is a giant conveyor belt,
where the machine of socialism
is assembled.
And everyone working the conveyor ?
is a fighter.
Comrades.
The show is over.
Now we start the real storm.
Boycott.
BOYCOTT
Let's go
As a result of shock working
instead of a heavy burden,
labor ? becomes
A matter of honor
A matter of glory
A matter of valor and heroism
Our car
Make road
for our
car
(aka The Conveyor)
Kyiv Film Studio "Ukrainfilm", 1931
Screenwriter:
Dmitriy Urin
Director:
Pavel Kolomoytsev
Cinematographer:
Ivan Shekker
Production design:
Iosif Shpinel
Newspapers report:
Moscow, July 6th, 1931
The Superior Board
of the People's Economy
appoints comrade
Kremnev Sergey Artemyevich
as a director
of the new colossal car factory.
Moscow, July 5th, 1931
Due to the general recession
Ford "temporarily" cuts production.
Who made all these cars?
No. Not Ford.
Three ? of many.
Mary...
(Vera Koroleva)
Tom...
(Kador Ben-Salim)
Sam...
(Vyacheslav Gomolyaka)
An overall crisis in industries
and markets compels us...
...to cut production.
Dismissed.
All the dismissed.
We're told that America flourishes...
And yet they throw us out on the streets
of our flourishing motherland.
But they won't fool us with words.
A car for every American.
For every American ? a car.
Fuel for a day, tobacco for a minute.
Glory to organized capitalism...
A car for every American.
Capitalism on rubber tires ?
the same kind of capitalism.
We must fight ? all together.
Americans
are you together...
...with niggers?..
Are you together with the scum
that steals your jobs?
And against who?
Against Ford, the true American?
SHAME ON YOU
I think he's right. If not for them,
we would have enough jobs.
Don't be stupid. It's not about
other workers, it's about our owners.
There is a country. Proletarians
of the world work there without masters.
Labor agency of USSR.
Jobs offered.
Jobs offered.
Well, Sam, let's go to the country
where the workers are their own masters.
Where would I go?
My motherland is here. My home is here.
Motherland
Dick, unemployed...
Took his own life... Out of hunger.
Home
Mr. Smith, your bill for your car,
flat and furniture is due today...
If you don't pay ? tomorrow
you'll have no flat, furniture, or car.
TOMORROW
Use Swift's ham
Only clean shaved man
has a chance of getting employment.
Buy
Cheap
10% discount
No bread
Forget it, let them eat.
Nobody's buying anyway.
No buyers
No jobs
Labor agency of USSR.
Jobs offered.
What's waiting for us
beyond the sea?
A good country is waiting.
Nobody is unemployed there...
they say...
Everybody is equal.
Except for black scum.
Across wide seas
Across wide lands
To a new country.
The country is growing.
Hello! Auto! Taxi! Motor!
One horsepower motor.
At the new place.
Nice fabric,
you can see it's not ours.
"Kyiv Tailor"
Vorovskay St., 24
Are you from America, comrades?
Your country is strange.
Some old horse took us to the car factory.
The Soviet Union is much more than that.
These are remnants of the past.
A year ago
On a deserted and desolate plain
our colossal car factory was founded.
Thousands of cars for the workers
of USSR will be made here.
Now this is what The Soviet Union is.
In the dormitory
Mikhail Kalinin, The All-Union Elder
The President is the man.
Meet your translator.
Proletarians ? even if Americans too.
Forget it, brother. We've done away with
these kind of things.
First night under a new roof.
Well, how do you like that.
What? A negro in the American's room...
Call for a meeting tomorrow.
Why?
Just because he's black?
Who will say it?
He has insulted his comrade
just because of his black skin.
That's capitalist training!
Boycott
You're not thinking, Sam.
Look around and think of what you see.
Who is that?
This is our director.
Your Ford.
You're Ford too.
We're all Fords here.
How do you achieve that?
You have to be udarnik ?
a champion worker.
I want to become one.
A new udarnik.
Remember! 2000 machines
to the end of the quarter.
Today, 18th August,
the factory theater
is showing the play
"The last decisive".
After the show ? everyone
storms the breakthrough!!!
It was the last part of the play.
The first battle of the future war.
We're not dead
You can't defeat the proletariat
The first brave people died...
But behind them ? the proletariat
of the Union and the whole world.
Comrades, let's check. Rise up, those
who are ready to defend our Union.
But there's no war happening.
But we are at the front.
The five-year plan
is a giant conveyor belt,
where the machine of socialism
is assembled.
And everyone working the conveyor ?
is a fighter.
Comrades.
The show is over.
Now we start the real storm.
Boycott.
BOYCOTT
Let's go
As a result of shock working
instead of a heavy burden,
labor ? becomes
A matter of honor
A matter of glory
A matter of valor and heroism
Our car
Make road
for our
car