01.10.24, 20:30, The Man With a Movie Camera (1929)

‘I am a film eye. I am the mechanical eye. I, the machine, show you the world, as I alone am able to see it.’ After his innovative Kino-Glaz (1922), film pioneer David Kaufman, better known as Dziga Vertov, further refined his style and technique in his masterpiece The Man with a Movie Camera. We follow his brother and cameraman Boris Kaufman during a day in an anonymous Soviet city with neither traditional narrative nor actors. Dziga Vertov — literally ‘the spinning top’ — fought for a sensory and reflexive cinematic language.

To this end, he sought experimentation including tilted camera angles, the use of various lenses and slow motion that blurred the line between reality and cinematography. Behind the editing table was Elisaveta Svilova, Vertov's wife and indispensable artistic link. She placed herself in film history with an ingenious sequence that gives insight into the construction of editing. So, also discern this woman's hand and eye behind the man with the camera.

This film will be introduced by art history lecturer Steven Jacobs.