Vertov, Dziga

Vertov, Dziga (1896-1954), Polish-born Russian documentarist and film theorist, a founder of Russian silent cinema.

Vertov was born Denis Kaufman in Białystok, Poland, the son of a librarian. Moving to Moscow with his parents early in World War I, he studied medicine and wrote poetry, novels, and essays. Around 1916 he took the pseudonym Dziga Vertov, which meant “turning” or “revolving” and suggested a spinning top and perhaps perpetual motion.

After the October Revolution of 1917 (see Russian Revolution), which brought the Bolsheviks to power, Vertov became editor of Film Weekly, a newsreel series started in 1918 to promote the Revolution that reused previously shot footage. Enthralled with the potential of film to educate and unify the diverse peoples of the Union of Soviet Socialist Repulics, most of whom were illiterate, Vertov started making feature-length documentaries in 1919. The same year, he founded the Kino Eye Group and began publishing manifestos advocating a radically new cinema based on real life to replace the commercial cinema. From 1922 to 1925 Vertov produced Kino-Pravda (“film truth”), a monthly series of news films that illustrated his theories and used numerous special effects and experimental editing techniques.

Extending his efforts, Vertov made several long documentaries, including the highly acclaimed Shetaya Chast Mira (1926; One Sixth of the World) and his most influential work, Chelovek s Kinoapparatom (1929; The Man with a Movie Camera). A dramatization of his ideas on the role of the documentary film-maker in society using a range of dazzling techniques, The Man with a Movie Camera established Vertov’s reputation abroad.

Vertov’s style of documentary film-making lost official favour during the 1930s. Nonetheless, his efforts established film as an important tool of mass communications during a period of enormous political change and profoundly influenced the development of the film documentary. See also Russian Cinema.