Ottilia Boleslavovna Reizman (Russian: Оттилия Болеславовна Рейзман; 24 September 1914 – 22 April 1986) was a Soviet camerawoman, documentary filmmaker, and newsreel operator. She is notable for being one of only two women permitted to work as front‑line camera operators during the Great Patriotic War (World II) and for receiving the State Stalin Prize twice for her wartime footage.
Early life and education
Reizman was born in Minsk, then part of the Russian Empire (now Belarus). In 1927, at the age of thirteen, she began working for the film studio Belarusfilm. She later attended the All‑Union State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK), graduating in 1935 from its camera school—a rare achievement for a woman at the time. Her contemporaries at VGIK included other pioneering female cinematographers such as Antonina Egina, Galina Monglovskaya, Margarita Pilikhina, and Era Savelyeva.
Career before the war
After completing her studies, Reizman joined the Moscow Newsreel Studio and also worked for Soyuzkinochronika, both predecessors of the Central Studio for Documentary Film (CSDF). While at CSDF she assisted in filming events such as the Great Women’s Automobile Race of 1936 and documentary sequences about miners in the Kuzbass region. Within CSDF, only two women—Reizman and Masha Sukhova—served as camera operators.
In 1938 Reizman was briefly arrested on charges of counter‑revolutionary activity under Article 58 of the RSFSR Penal Code; the charges were subsequently dismissed.
World War II service
When the Soviet Union entered World II, Reizman volunteered to film front‑line combat. After initial restrictions, she was deployed with partisan units under the command of the guerrilla leader known as “Batya” (Grigory Linkov). She documented partisan operations, including a German offensive in which her colleague Sukhova was killed. Reizman’s footage from battles in Belarus, Hungary (including the liberation of Budapest in 1945), and other Eastern Front theatres was used for Soviet newsreels and later incorporated into evidence presented at the Nuremberg Trials.
For her wartime contributions she received two Stalin Prizes (1949, 1951) as well as military decorations, including the Medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War” and the Order of the Patriotic War, both second class.
Post‑war work
Following the war, Reizman continued her career with CSDF, covering the advance of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, the Far Eastern Front, and the Soviet entry into Czechoslovakia after Germany’s surrender. She remained active in film production until 1973, contributing to a range of documentary and newsreel projects.
Personal life and death
Reizman was sometimes referred to by the diminutive “Otya.” She died in Moscow, USSR, on 22 April 1986 at the age of 71.
Legacy
Ottilia Reizman is recognized as a pioneering female cinematographer in Soviet film history. Her front‑line wartime footage remains a valuable historical record of the Eastern Front, and her career exemplifies the limited but significant roles women occupied in Soviet documentary filmmaking during the mid‑20th century.
