In an article in the New York Times (“The Doomed Art of Soviet Filmmakers,” published October 13, 2011), journalist Dave Kehr states that “for a period of mid Until the end of the 1920s, the art of cinema meant only one thing to serious film critics of America and Europe: Soviet-style editing, or the art of editing together the shots in order to produce ideas and emotions beyond those expressed in the images” (Kehr 2011, p.6). This opening paragraph effectively summarizes the fundamental role that some Soviet directors had in the development of cinema and in particular the art of editing. In this essay I will talk about three of the most important contributors of the Soviet era: Lev Kuleshov, Vsevold Pudovkin and Sergei Eisenstein, delving into the role they played in the development of modern cinema and in particular their contribution to the technique of editing. Lev Vladimirovich Kuleshov was born on January 13, 1899 in Moscow, Soviet Union (known today as Russia). Kuleshov began his artistic career at the young age of 15, attending the Moscow School of Painting, Architecture and Sculpture and went on to become a set designer for director Evgeni Bauer at Alzexandr Khazonkov's film studio in Moscow. In 1917, when Kuleshov was 18, a director called Yevgeni Bauer died while directing the film Za schastem and Kuleshov was offered the opportunity to take on the responsibility of directing the film. This would be the beginning of his career as a director. Kuleshov would learn much from Bauer's approach to directing (referred to as "the Bauer method") which involved the director having complete control over every aspect of the film (including, but not limited to, costumes and styling, lighting and set design) where ...... middle of the paper......ch film editing was practiced, immortalizing both the techniques developed and their legacy and to this day Kuleshov's “Kuleshov experiment”, the “5 editing techniques " and "Methods of Eisenstein's montage" are deeply revered and studied by professional and aspiring filmmakers around the world. Works Cited Eisenstein, SM 1949, "Film Form: A Dialectic Approach to Film Form, Harcourt Brace and Company, USA The Battleship Potemkin 1925, film, Goskino, Soviet Union. Kehr, D. 2011, “The doomed art of Soviet filmmakers”, New York Times, 13 October 2011, p.6) Kuleshov, LV 1922, “Americanism”, Kino-Fot, No.1, p.14-15 Taylor, R. & Christie, I. 1988, Factory: Soviet Cinema In Documents 1896 – 1939, Routledge, Oxon. Van Sijl, J 2005, Film Storytelling: The 100 Most Powerful Film Conventions, Michael Wiese Productions, California.