Dziga Vertov. The Man With a Movie Camera

'The Man With The Movie Camera' is a Russian film made by avant-garde film directer Dziga Vertov in 1929. This film is is refered to alot in Lev Manovich's 'language of New Media'. Manovich refers to it alot as the film only contains shots of objects and people that are only on shot for a few seconds and the shots are accompanied by a small sentence briefly explaining what's in the shot. Manovich talks about the films, narrative and filming style, and how for its time was pushing the boundaries of filming styles.

"It proposes an untamed, and apparently endless unwinding of
cinematic techniques, or, to use contemporary language, ‘effects’, as cinema's
new way of speaking.”

'The Man With The Movie Camera' is trying to provoke viewers by tempting them interact with the film, trying to get the viewers to understand what the directer is saying and pushing the viewer to make their own assumptions and opinions,

"Along with Vertov, we gradually realize the full range of possibilities offered
by the camera. Vertov's goal is to seduce us into his way of seeing and thinking,
to make us share his excitement, his gradual process of discovery of film's new
language. This process of discovery is film's main narrative and it is told through
a catalog of discoveries being made. Thus, in the hands of Vertov, a database, this
normally static and "objective" form, becomes dynamic and subjective. More
importantly, Vertov is able to achieve something which new media designers and
artists still have to learn — how to merge database and narrative merge into a new
form.”


I find the film very interesting, for a film made over 70 years ago it still has originality about it, its still challenging minds of the viewers, raising questions. I see the film as a way to make my video, to create something that challenges the viewer, engaging them. Making the question whats going on, and coming away with their own meaning and understanding. This is a hard task to achieve for a student, but something i hope to work on.

The Man With The Camera. Clip taken from 'Youtube' and is part 2 of the film.