Director, filmmaker, scriptwriter, publicist; son of the Odessa journalist L. Karmen. He graduated from VGIK (the All-Union State Cinematography Institute) in 1932. As a camera operator he took part in several film-making expeditions in the USSR. He was in Spain during the Civil War, in 1936–38, and worked at the front in 1941–45. Later he was a maker of cinema documentaries.