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Соль Сванетии (Salt for Svanetia)

Director: Mikhail Kalatozov
Year: 1930
Run-time: 53 min
Source: Kanopy

Wikipedia

Notable for: It's not the first documentary on the list, but it is the first to adopt many of the conventions we would associate it.  Salt for Svanetia is a docudrama not unlike Nanook of the North, not on the list, purporting to describe the culture and history of the Svanetia region of Georgia.  Much of it is transparently staged.  The eventual aim is to applaud Soviet modernization of an industrious, but backwards and superstitious people.  The film ends as Soviet workers build a road bringing the much-needed titular resource to the region.

Verdict: It is a beautiful film with an expressionist style, the drama very reminiscent of Eisenstein.  And at least at the beginning, it seems respectful of the region's customs and economy, and it has some historical value.  But ultimately, it's exploitative in a way that's much more pernicious than much of the Soviet propaganda of the period, and it's no surprise that its subjects have come out against many of its depictions.
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