Demutsky, Danylo

Demutsky, Danylo [Демуцький, Данило; Demuc'kyj], b 16 July 1893 in Okhmativ, Kyiv gubernia, d 7 May 1954 in Kyiv. Artistic photographer and film cameraman; son of Porfyr Demutsky. In 1925 he was awarded a gold medal for his photography at the International Exhibition of Applied Arts in Paris. That year Demutsky began work at the Odesa Artistic Film Studio of the All-Ukrainian Photo-Cinema Administration (VUFKU) and later at the Kyiv VUFKU. From 1928 to 1932, working with Oleksander Dovzhenko, he filmed Arsenal (1929), Zemlia (Earth, 1930), and Ivan (1933) and created a school of poetic camera art. In the early 1930s Demutsky was exiled to Central Asia, where he was forbidden to work in film until 1943. After making several films at the Tashkent film studio, he returned to Ukraine in 1947 and at the Kyiv Artistic Film Studio filmed Podvyh rozvidnyka (The Feat of a Scout, 1947), U myrni dni (In Days of Peace, 1950), and Taras Shevchenko (1951), the camera work of which received first prize at the Fourth International Film Festival at Karlovy Vary in 1951. His last film was Kalynovyi hai (The Viburnum Grove, 1953). A monograph by L. Kokhno on Demutsky’s life and achievements appeared in Kyiv in 1965.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 1 (1984).]