THE INDEXICAL FINGER OF SOVIET STOP-MOTION ANIMATION: SARRA MOKIL'S DIRECTORIAL DEBUT.

This essay calls attention to a neglected pioneer of cinematic innovation--puppet artist, animator, and director Sarra Mokil. In so doing, it identifies forms of cinematic thinking that are expressed not in the male-dominated field of logocentric film theory of her time and place, but in the practical, intuitive, but no less theorized praxis of filmmaking itself. I speculate on the kind of experiment and critical thinking that were done on her first project, puppetry for the short "The Master of Life," and then treat briefly the history of puppetry as a satirical form in the Soviet Union through consideration of her work on The New Gulliver. Then I turn to the fairy tale world she created in her first two short films, asking how her approach to world creation, character movement, and cinematography reflect the expectations placed on her by industry and audience in the context of Stalinist cultural repression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]