Before TikTok edits, before MTV, before jump cuts had a name, Dziga Vertov was already doing it better (in 1929!).
Trailer for “Man with a Movie Camera”
You Can’t Make This Sh!t Up
- Vertov made an hour-long doc with basically no conventional story and no actors, yet it still feels more alive and inventive than a lot of movies made almost 100 years later.
- The film uses jump cuts, split screens, double exposures, freeze frames, reverse motion, slow motion, stop-motion, and extreme angles decades before MTV, YouTube editing, or experimental film schools made that stuff common.
- You see the cameraman climbing onto moving vehicles and lying on tracks for shots, the editor physically cutting the film, and even a theater audience watching the same film you are watching.
Watch “Man with a Movie Camera”
You can watch “Man with a Movie Camera” on Prime Video and Apple TV via JustWatch:
https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/man-with-a-movie-camera
Ratings:
- My Rating: 92/100
- IMDb Rating: 8.3/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: 88/100 (Users); 98/100 (Critics)
Director’s Note: Dziga Vertov directed and wrote this 68-minute silent Soviet documentary landmark. His whole idea was that the camera could capture life more truthfully and more boldly than traditional fiction films.
Release Date: 1929
Other Unique Stuff
- The doc jumps from a wedding to a divorce to a woman giving birth within minutes, like Vertov is speed-running the entire human life cycle.
- There are moments where a blinking human eye is cut directly against a camera lens opening. Almost like Vertov is saying the machine sees better than we do.
Wrap Up:
I loved “Man with a Movie Camera” because it feels both ancient and fresh at the same time.
Thanks for reading!
Heather Fenty, Guest Writer, Daily Doc