The Cinematheque

Dziga Vertov’s renowned ciné-poem, a landmark of documentary and avant-garde practice, remains an exhilarating experience. A ​“City Symphony” in the manner of certain other non-fiction films of the silent era, it offers a dazzling ​“kino-eye” portrait of a day in the life of a large Soviet city. It is also radically self-reflexive, never ceasing to remind us that its actualities are filmed actualities. With elaborate montage, camera tricks, and other cinematic pyrotechnics, The Man with a Movie Camera constantly calls attention to the process of its own making. Vertov’s ultimate concern is the relation between film and reality—and the revolutionary power of the former to transform the latter. In recent polls conducted by Sight & Sound magazine, Vertov’s masterpiece was voted one of the ten best films of all time and the greatest documentary ever made!