50 years of living pictures in Estonia (1962)

Overview of the history of Estonian newsreels. A hand with a brushpaint is giving the final touch to the title "50 years of living pictures in Estonia. Episodes of the filmmakers. Cameraman Kalju Kivi behind the camera. Celebration of the 50th anniversary of Estonian film. Fragments of the archival films. 1912 – episodes of the Pskov-Pechory Monastery, Seto women in national costumes are cutting grain with the sickles, views of Tartu and its residents. 1913 – film "Great song celebration in Pärnu": festival participants, song festival stage, the choir, gymnasts and the audience. Photograph of one of the first photographers in Estonian – Johannes Pääsuke from Tartu. Photograph about a seal hunt, filmed by Konstantin Märska. 1921 - delegation from the English Parliament arrives at the Balti train station, emotional reception with lots of people. Episodes of the sketch by comedians Max and Lex. President of the United States of America Herbert Hoover visits Tallinn. All these episodes are accompanied by disparagive and ironical comments. It is not before the workers' demonstration in Tallinn where the voiceover text (author Valdo Pant) compliments on the event. Document of a cultural history: the grand master Paul Keres victoriously returns from the AVRO Chess Tournament in the Netherlands in 1938. 1940 - Riga, three bourgeois foreign ministers plan conspiracy against the Soviet Union. But the people are against it – episodes about the demonstration on the Victory Square, Soviet flags, posters and slogans. The newsreader confirms: "Freedom, bread, land!" The Soviet red flag is waving on the top of the Pikk Hermann tower. 1941 – the democracy gave birth to the institution Estonian Soviet Film Chronicles and Documentaries (actually: the Estonian Studio of Chronicles and Documentaries). Episodes of the film cases, voiceover from chronicle films praising Soviet life and the Communist Party in the background. Directors, cameramen and editors, including Vladimir Parvel and others - on the screen. Episodes of the filming in the meeting hall at the Riigikogu, Toompea; sound supervisor Kadi Vihalem, cameramen Inessa Kozlova, Alfred Eljas and Eduard Eljas on the screen. Cameraman Vladimir Maak on the corn field; camerman Evald Vaher filming the television mast in Tartu and also climbing it. The cameras of the Tallinnfilm film studio have been used on every vehicle except the rocket and a galloping horse. Combat cameraman Semyon Shkolnikov making a parachute jump with a film camera to the partisan camp in Yugoslav that is attacked by air bombs. Cameraman Hans Roosipuu is filming the process of demining. Episodes of building an oil shale mine, cameraman Vitali Gorbunov is filming the first flame in the cement furnace at the opening of Kunda cement factory. Episodes of filming at sea - romantic and dangerous. Vladimir Zhukov accompanied the half-year-long Atlantic trip on fishing ships. Episodes of Gustav Ernesaks conducting the opening song at the song elebration. Episodes of the founding congress of the Union of Cinematographers of the USSR in the meeting hall of the Toompea castle. Ants Eskola, Peedu Ojamaa and others sitting in the hall. Synchronized voiceover of the speech by Leonid Lentsman, the Secretary of the Estonian Communist Party. Aleksei Müürisepp, Johannes Käbin and others sitting behind the presidium table.