02 · 26 · 15

The “Best Documentary of All Time” Free to Watch Online

Ma. Cristina Alemán, editora en jefe (@mcristina)

The films made at the beginning of the 20th Century in the Soviet Union offer us a window onto the possibilities of cinema from a different ideological perspective, one that is free of the narrative formulas and conventions of Hollywood, and capitalism. One of the most important figures in the history of Soviet cinema is documentary pioneer Dziga Vertoz (whose birth name was David Abelevich Kaufman) and his most celebrated work, Man with a Movie Camera (1929), is now available to watch online.

According to Vertov’s philosophy (he created the doctrine of the Kino-oki, or Kino-eye) narrative fiction films are the opiate of the people; cinema’s mission should be to show reality, not hide it. The camera should be an omnipresent and objective eye, a witness to what is happening in the world:

“Our eyes see very little and very badly – so people dreamed up the microscope to let them see invisible phenomena; they invented the telescope…now they have perfected the cinecamera to penetrate more deeply into he visible world, to explore and record visual phenomena so that what is happening now, which will have to be taken account of in the future, is not forgotten.”– provisional instructions to the Kino-oki group, Dziga Vertov, 1926 (quote from Senses of Cinema).

Man with a Movie Camera is a great example of this philosophy in action, and was voted best film of all time by critics and filmmakers interviewed by the British cinema magazine Sight & Sound, which is operated by the British Film Institute (BFI). On their official website, Sight & Sound suggests that Vertov’s work shows that documentary cinema can survive the digital age’s destruction of the integrity of the image, and make it even more relevant.

Dziga Vertov, like Sergei Eisenstein and Lev Kuleshov, experimented with the expressive possibilities of filming, joining fragments of film with no concern for narrative continuity or temporal logic, seeking only a poetic effect.

The cinema of Dziga Vertov was not well received by the Soviet government, despite being closely aligned with their agenda. Nor was it well-liked by foreign critics, who considered it ridiculous. But today its contribution to cinematic history is evident. Vertov’s influence can be found in the work of experimental filmmakers like Chris Marker, Jean-Luc Godard and Stan Brakhage, as well as in subsequent popular ideologies like the cinéma vérité of Jean Rouch and Edhar Morin, or the Dogme 95 manifesto, formed by Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg.

You can see the complete version of Man with a Movie Camera, with music by composer Michael Nyman, here:

Taking advantage of the fact that all of Vertov’s work is now in the public domain, the portal Open Culture has created a list of his films that are available to view online. You can see the list: here.