Dziga Vertov

by Patrick Khawand
 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY
• Real name: David Abelevich
Kaufman
• Nationality: Soviet – Russified Jew
• Born: January 2, 1896, Bialystok,
Poland (formerly Russian empire)
• Occupation: documentary,
newsreel & film director,
as well as cinema theorist
• Notorious work:Man with a movie
camera (1929)
World’s 8th greatest film
as per Sight & Sound critic’s poll
• Died: February 12, 1954, Moscow,
COD: stomach cancer
Early Years
• Studied music at Bialystok
Conservatory.
• Family moved to Moscow, Russia
in 1915, escaping from invading
German Army.
• He Russified his Jewish name to
Denis Arkadievich.
• Studied medicine at the
Psychoneurological Institute in
Saint Petersburg, experimenting
with “sound collages”.
• Adopted the name ”Dziga
Vertov” meaning “spinning top” in
Ukranian.
Writings
• Began writing poetry, science
fiction & satire in Petrograd, Russia.
• Most of early work unpublished
• Few manuscripts have survived
World War II.
• Some materials surfaced through
films & documentaries produced
by him & his brothers.
• Known for concepts in perception
& it ineffability in relation to the
nature of qualia (sensory
experiences).
Fisrt work
• at the age of 22, Vertov began editing
for Kino-Nedelya ,While working
there he met his future wife, the film
director and editor, Elizaveta Svilova,
who at the time was working as an
editor at Goskino. She began
collaborating with Vertov, beginning as
his editor but becoming assistant and co-
director in subsequent films, such
as Man with a Movie Camera (1929),
and Three Songs About Linin (1934).
• In 1924 Vertov had been using his
newsreel series as a pedestal to vilify
dramatic fiction for several years; he
continued his criticisms even after the
warm reception of Sergei
Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin 1925
Man with a Movie Camera

• This movie is an experimental 1929 Soviet silent

documentary , directed by Dziga Vertov, filmed by
his brother Mikhail Kaufman, and edited by his
wife Yelizaveta Svilova.
• Man with a Movie Camera is famous for the range
of cinematic techniques Vertov invented,
employed or developed, such as multiple
exposure, fast motion, slow motion, freeze
frame, match cuts, jump cuts, split screen, dutch
angle, extreme close-up, tracking shoots, reversed
footage, stop motion animations and self-
reflexiveee visuals
• Man with a Movie Camera was largely dismissed
upon its initial release; the work’s fast cutting,
self-reflexivity , and emphasis on form over
content ,were all subjects of criticism. In the
British Film Institute's 2012 Sight&Sound poll,
however, film critics voted it the 8th greatest film
ever made ,[4]and it was later named the best
documentary of all time in the same magazine.