Dziga Vertov
Birth : 1896-01-03, Bialystok, Grodno Province, Russian Empire
Death : 1954-02-11
History
Dziga Vertov (born David Abelevich Kaufman) was a Soviet pioneer documentary film and newsreel director, as well as a cinema theorist. His filming practices and theories influenced the cinéma vérité style of documentary movie-making and the Dziga Vertov Group, a radical film-making cooperative which was active from 1968 to 1972. The independent, exploratory style of Vertov influenced and inspired many filmmakers and directors. The Dziga Vertov Group borrowed his name. In 1960, Jean Rouch used Vertov's filming theory when making Chronicle of a Summer. His partner Edgar Morin coined Cinéma vérité term when describing the style, using direct translation of Vertov’s KinoPravda. The Free Cinema movement in the United Kingdom during the 1950s, the Direct Cinema in North America in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and the Candid Eye series in Canada in the 1950s, all essentially owed a debt to Vertov. In the 2012 Sight & Sound poll, critics voted Vertov's Man with a Movie Camera (1929) the 8th best film ever made.
In Memory Of
A middle-aged man, named Ziv, finds it difficult to understand the today's society. The film illustrates his wild views and concerns, as his imagination flashes through various times in history.
Characters
Man With a Movie Camera: The Global Remake is a participatory video shot by people around the world who are invited to record images interpreting the original script of Vertov’s Man With A Movie Camera and upload them to this site. Software developed specifically for this project archives, sequences and streams the submissions as a film. Anyone can upload footage. When the work streams your contribution becomes part of a worldwide montage, in Vertov’s terms the “decoding of life as it is”.
(archive footage)
The film "All the Vertovs" tells about the Kaufman brothers-David, Mikhail and Boris. All three are world-class filmmakers. Each of them managed to achieve the highest level of proficiency in the profession, each had their own vision of the world and the gift to embody it on the screen in a unique, deeply individual manner.
Writer
From the start, Vertov made himself known as an irreconcilable enemy of “acted films,” which he regarded as a violation of truth. At the peak of World War II, however, such lofty artistic principles proved impractical. Vertov’s poetic and patriotic For You, Front! is a fiction film with a script and two actors. In a letter to her fiancé, a soldier on the front, Saule asks if there is anything he needs from “our beloved Kazakhstan.” Yes there is, he replies: lead, which can be used to make bullets to kill the enemies of “our beloved country.”
Director
From the start, Vertov made himself known as an irreconcilable enemy of “acted films,” which he regarded as a violation of truth. At the peak of World War II, however, such lofty artistic principles proved impractical. Vertov’s poetic and patriotic For You, Front! is a fiction film with a script and two actors. In a letter to her fiancé, a soldier on the front, Saule asks if there is anything he needs from “our beloved Kazakhstan.” Yes there is, he replies: lead, which can be used to make bullets to kill the enemies of “our beloved country.”
Director
Follows the legendary female pilots Raskova, Osipenko, and Grisodubova in their failed but magnificent attempt to make the first nonstop trans-Siberian flight. Using documentary reenactments, Vertov depicts the flight, the crash, the rescue, and the women’s heroic return to Moscow, where crowds shower them with flowers, and leaders with speeches.
Director
The film is about the life and work of Grigory Ordzhonikidze Konstantinoviche, an important personality in both the Communist Party and the Soviet state. The film includes speeches by his bereaved friends who attended his funeral. In 1937, after the unexpected death of Sergo Ordzhonikidze, Vertov received an urgent order from the government to produce a film about the life of Ordzhonikidze. He was ordered to work together with Yakov Bliohom and the director of the film "Battleship Potemkin" distributed by Goskino (Soviet State Committee for Cinematography).
Director
A 1937 Soviet documentary film directed by Dziga Vertov. The film was shot to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the October Revolution. It focuses on the women and the role of motherhood, featuring images from across the Soviet Union, in particular the Far East.
Editor
This documentary, made up of 3 episodes, is based on three songs sung by anonymous people in Soviet Russia about Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.
Writer
This documentary, made up of 3 episodes, is based on three songs sung by anonymous people in Soviet Russia about Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.
Director
This documentary, made up of 3 episodes, is based on three songs sung by anonymous people in Soviet Russia about Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.
Director
A lyrical documentary on the lives of Coal miners in the Donbass who are struggling to meet their production quotas under the Five Year Plan.
Director
Writer
A cameraman wanders around Moscow, Kharkiv, Kyiv and Odesa with a camera slung over his shoulder, documenting urban life with dazzling invention.
Man with a Movie Camera is one of the major manifestos of the world cinema avant-garde. According to the aesthetic principles of Vertov, the film was not based on a script. In Man with a Movie Camera, Vertov implemented experiments that he carried out for many years and theoretical developments in cinematography and editing, turning the film into a film-making methodological guide for subsequent generations of directors. The camera of a talented cinematographer Mikhail Kaufman captures the motley life of Ukrainian megalopolises – Odesa, Kharkiv, and Kyiv – under New Economic Policy.
Director
A cameraman wanders around Moscow, Kharkiv, Kyiv and Odesa with a camera slung over his shoulder, documenting urban life with dazzling invention.
Man with a Movie Camera is one of the major manifestos of the world cinema avant-garde. According to the aesthetic principles of Vertov, the film was not based on a script. In Man with a Movie Camera, Vertov implemented experiments that he carried out for many years and theoretical developments in cinematography and editing, turning the film into a film-making methodological guide for subsequent generations of directors. The camera of a talented cinematographer Mikhail Kaufman captures the motley life of Ukrainian megalopolises – Odesa, Kharkiv, and Kyiv – under New Economic Policy.
Writer
The film is dedicated to the achievements of the Ukrainian SSR for the eleventh anniversary of the October Revolution.
Director
The film is dedicated to the achievements of the Ukrainian SSR for the eleventh anniversary of the October Revolution.
Editor
Through the travelogue format, it depicts the multitude of Soviet peoples in remote areas of USSR and details the entirety of the wealth of the Soviet land. Focusing on cultural and economic diversity, the film is in fact a call for unification in order to build a "complete socialist society".
Writer
Through the travelogue format, it depicts the multitude of Soviet peoples in remote areas of USSR and details the entirety of the wealth of the Soviet land. Focusing on cultural and economic diversity, the film is in fact a call for unification in order to build a "complete socialist society".
Director
Through the travelogue format, it depicts the multitude of Soviet peoples in remote areas of USSR and details the entirety of the wealth of the Soviet land. Focusing on cultural and economic diversity, the film is in fact a call for unification in order to build a "complete socialist society".
Editor
Commissioned by the Moscow Soviet as a documentary and information film for the citizens of Moscow prior to municipal elections, film is a tableau of Soviet life and achievements in the period of reconstruction following the Civil War of 1917-1921.
Writer
Commissioned by the Moscow Soviet as a documentary and information film for the citizens of Moscow prior to municipal elections, film is a tableau of Soviet life and achievements in the period of reconstruction following the Civil War of 1917-1921.
Director
Commissioned by the Moscow Soviet as a documentary and information film for the citizens of Moscow prior to municipal elections, film is a tableau of Soviet life and achievements in the period of reconstruction following the Civil War of 1917-1921.
Director
Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: A peasant buys a receiver at the radio shop / Instructions to attach an antenna / A broadcast-station is developed / A concert is broadcast. Though only a third of this final issue of Kino-Pravda seems to survive, there still exists Aleksandr Bushkin’s time-lapse animation and the sequence in which, as Yuri Tsivian describes, “a cross-section of a photographically correct izba (Russian peasant’s log hut) is penetrated by schematically charted radio waves”—a testament to the magical properties and propagandistic uses of radio in reaching out to Russia’s distant peasantry.
Director
Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: First anniversary of Lenin's death / Smycka of the city and the village: group of peasants visit Moscow / Lenin's effect on peasants and oppressed nations
Director
Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel made to commemorate the first anniversary of the death of Vladimir Ilich Lenin (21st January 1924 - 1925) drawn from 'The Final Journey', a Pravda feuilleton written on the occasion of Lenin's funeral by the man who had introduced Vertov to cinema, Mikhail Koltsov. Contains: First anniversary of Lenin's death: 1. Assassination attempt on Lenin and Soviet Russia's progress under his leadership / 2. Lenin's illness, death and funeral / 3. The year after Lenin's death
Director
1925 (Soviet Union)
Director
Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: Reports of the Pioneers: Excursion to the country, to the zoo etc.
Writer
This documentary promoting the joys of life in a Soviet village centers around the activities of the Young Pioneers. These children are constantly busy, pasting propaganda posters on walls, distributing hand bills, exhorting all to "buy from the cooperative" as opposed to the Public Sector, promoting temperance, and helping poor widows. Experimental portions of the film, projected in reverse, feature the un-slaughtering of a bull and the un-baking of bread.
Director
This documentary promoting the joys of life in a Soviet village centers around the activities of the Young Pioneers. These children are constantly busy, pasting propaganda posters on walls, distributing hand bills, exhorting all to "buy from the cooperative" as opposed to the Public Sector, promoting temperance, and helping poor widows. Experimental portions of the film, projected in reverse, feature the un-slaughtering of a bull and the un-baking of bread.
Director
Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: Connecting city and country, south and north, summer and winter, peasant women and worker women / Emancipation of women in the USSR
Writer
The first animated movie made in the Soviet Union, it portrays a bloated caricature of a Capitalist devouring a massive heap of food and drink.
Director
The first animated movie made in the Soviet Union, it portrays a bloated caricature of a Capitalist devouring a massive heap of food and drink.
Title Designer
Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: Up the Eiffel Tower in Paris / Moscow / Auto race Petrograd – Moscow / Aspects of everyday Soviet life / Peasant from Jaroslavl' visiting Moscow / Ceremonial introduction of a newborn into a workers' collective
Director
Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: Up the Eiffel Tower in Paris / Moscow / Auto race Petrograd – Moscow / Aspects of everyday Soviet life / Peasant from Jaroslavl' visiting Moscow / Ceremonial introduction of a newborn into a workers' collective
Director
Director
The building of Sevzapkino. Columns of demonstrators are moving along Bolshaya Dmitrovka, Dzerzhinsky square, Pushkinskaya (Strastnaya) square, Kamenny Most (The Big Stone Bridge) and Red Square. Decorated cars and trucks. This is a Military parade on Red Square. L.D. Trotsky, N.I. Muralov, S.S. Kamenev are among the commanders. The demonstrators are carrying the models of a boat, plane and globe. The theatrical march. The members of the government and guests including K. Tsetkin are watching from the tribunes. There are lots of planes on the airdrome and square. M.M. Litvinov, N.I. Rikov and others stand near the plane. The plane builds jp speed, soars in the air, leads for landing and lands. Hordes of people gathered at the aerodrome. Camera operator is shooting. The church on the corner of Ulitsa Myasnitskaya (Kirovskaya), the building of GUM (State Department Store) and Khamovnichesky (Frunzensky) Council. Illuminated building.
Director
Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: Hunger and harvest / Alliance between city and country / Agricultural and home industries exhibition: To the exhibition, construction work and preparations, exhibits, map of the exhibition, visitors
Director
Traditional-style newsreel series (1923-1925)
Director
Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: Arts and crafts exhibition / Actions against hunger / Eisenstein's first film "Dnevnik Glumova" ("Glumov's Diary") / Young Pioneers / May 1, parades
Director
Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: Against war / Against Gods / Education / Agitation / Sports and gymnastics / Danger of war.
Director
Dziga Vertov documentary on flying.
Director
Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: IV. Congress of the Comintern / Congress of the Profintern.
Editor
Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel. The first themed issue of Kino-Pravda, devoted to the fifth anniversary of the October Revolution in 1922.
Writer
Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel. The first themed issue of Kino-Pravda, devoted to the fifth anniversary of the October Revolution in 1922.
Director
Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel. The first themed issue of Kino-Pravda, devoted to the fifth anniversary of the October Revolution in 1922.
Director
Lost Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel
Director
Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: All-Russian Congress of Trade Unions / Delegations and diplomats / Renaming of a confectionery factory / Unloading supplies / Komsomol Day / Red Army maneuvers.
Director
Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: International Youth Day and demonstrations / All-Russian Olympiad / Streetcar collision / Construction of automobiles in a Petrograd factory.
Director
Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: Congress of the "Living Church" / Opening of the horse racing season / Demonstration of an American movie camera / Operation of mobile projection units.
Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: A bet is placed on the outcome of the Trial of the Socialist Revolutionaries / The verdict / People in streetcars and on the street / A crashed aircraft / Reconstruction of streetcar line 13 / Peacetime use of tanks – airport construction work.
Director
Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: A bet is placed on the outcome of the Trial of the Socialist Revolutionaries / The verdict / People in streetcars and on the street / A crashed aircraft / Reconstruction of streetcar line 13 / Peacetime use of tanks – airport construction work.
Director
Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: Trial of the Socialist Revolutionaries / Rebuilding of the destroyed Siberian village of Taseevo / Railroad station Sljudjanka / Abandoned mica pits near Lake Baikal / Soči health resort / Chudjakovskij-Park / Beach near Tuapse / The loading of silk / Afghanistan, Kabul / Peacetime use of tanks / Mountain road / Chapel in the Caucasus.
Director
Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: Streetcar collision / Arms manufacturing plant resumes operation / Assembling an automobile / Bicycle and motorcycle races / A parade of Red Army armored units and an attack exercise.
Director
Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: Peasant People's Commissar for Agricultural Affairs, Vasilij Jakovenko / Health resort Soči / Sanatorium for children / Harness racing - The first Red Derby.
Director
Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: Trial of the Socialist Revolutionaries / Motor race Moscow – Sevastopol' / Barges loaded with grain are sent to the starving in the provinces / The Caucasus and its resorts.
Director
Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: Trial of the Socialist Revolutionaries / Demonstrators carrying banners.
Director
Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: The opening of an electric generating station / Trial of the Socialist Revolutionaries.
Director
Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: Starving children / Requisitioning of valuables possessed by the Russian Orthodox Church / Fundraising flights in support of the hungry / Trial of the Socialist Revolutionaries.
Director
The epic story of the Russian Civil War (1918-21): the White Terror, the counterrevolutionary uprisings, the guerrilla war, the Kolchak front, the Wrangel front and the Kronstadt rebellion. Chaos and violence, devastation and death.
Director
Editor
This film shows us leaders of organizations that emerged after the Russian Revolution.
Director
This film shows us leaders of organizations that emerged after the Russian Revolution.
Director
Dziga Vertov documenting the funeral of Sergiya Radonezhskogo.
Director
A chronicle of the Russian Revolution of 1917, from the bourgeois democratic February Revolution to the great socialist October Revolution and the final triumph.
Director
The Kino-nedelya newsreels constitute the first films of Dziga Vertov. A total of 43 issues, each containing an average of 5 to 7 different items, were produced between May 1918 and June 1919. In the fall of 1918, Vertov joined the newsreel’s ranks and soon took on full responsibility for the series, defining the content and structure of each issue. The films provide an invaluable record of life in the young Soviet Russia, then in the throes of civil war.
