Dziga Vertov

Dziga Vertov was a revolutionary director and film theorist from the Soviet Union. Dziga made the world's first documentaries, and through a combination of brilliant writing and cinematography he captured the imagination of his generation. Here is a passage from his documentary Kino-Glaz, or Cine-Eye in English, where he describes man's transformation of perspective with the advent of the camera:

Still image from Kino-Glaz

“I'm an eye. A mechanical eye. I, the machine, show you a world the way only I can see it. I free myself for today and forever from human immobility. I'm in constant movement. I approach and pull away from objects. I creep under them. I move alongside a running horse's mouth. I fall and rise with the falling and rising bodies. This is I, the machine, manoeuvring in the chaotic movements, recording one movement

after another in the most complex combinations. Freed from the boundaries of time and space, I coordinate any and all points in the universe, wherever I want them to be. My way leads towards the creation of a fresh perception of the world.

Thus I explain in a new way the world unknown to you.” – Dziga Vertov, 1923


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