Man with a Movie Camera (1929)

Soviet Union
Feature Documentary
Original Title: Chelovek s kino-apparatom
Writer/Director: Dziga Vertov
Cinematographer: Mikhail Kaufman
Cast: Mikhail Kaufman

Vertov’s documentary paints a picture of a day in the life of the Soviet Union. A city is awakening. We are greeted with people beginning their day: they wash and dress and leave for work, busses leave the station, cars, carts and trams jostle for space on the busy streets, performers perform, workers work, and machines grind. We are given neither inter-titles nor time to dwell on the images; the cutting is fast. Form seems to be more important than content. We are shown a portrait of a city, yet the experience is more musical, more abstract, more akin to fiction than document. A dazzling experience.