The Kinoks (Russian: '''Киноки'''|kino-oki|cinema-eyes) were a collective of Soviet filmmakers in the 1920s, consisting of Dziga Vertov, Elizaveta Svilova and Mikhail Kaufman.
According to Annette Michelson, Georges Sadoul states the collective was founded in 1922 [1] by Svilova, Vertov and Kaufman, and the painter Belyaev was a fourth member.[2] However, in 1923 Svilova wrote an open letter to the journal LEF applying for admission to the Council of Three.[3] Scholars have interpreted this as a publicity stunt "to provide exposure of their work and to raise awareness of their commitment to documentary cinema" [4] [5] rather than an actual application, since Svilova had already been working with Vertov and Kaufman for several years. From 1922 to 1923 Vertov, Kaufman, and Svilova published a number of manifestos in avant-garde journals which clarified the Kinoks' positions vis-à-vis other leftist groups.
The Kinoks argued strongly for documentary cinema and the use of candid cameras and filming workers instead of using actors.[6] They published a series of manifestos and statements in LEF, an avant-garde cinema journal.
The most acclaimed work is Man with a Movie Camera (1929).