Yuri Tsivian was born in Latvia and is the author of numerous publications on Russo-Soviet and world cinema. In addition to his many journal articles, he has created electronic media materials and has most recently publishedthe following books: Silent Witnesses: Russian Films, 1908–1919 (1989), Early Cinema in Russia and its Cultural Reception (1994), and, in collaboration with Yuri Lotman, Dialogues with the Screen (1994).