Introduction
A documentary is a movie that attempts to present events, people and places in real life for purposes of instructing or maintaining historical records (Aitken). Documentaries are characterized by carefully chosen and arranged scenes just like movies. Unlike movies, documentaries are not scripted and the people in a documentary are not actors. In most cases, documentaries rely on voice-over narration to explain events in a given footage. In other cases, the story in the documentary is told through interviews with the people featured.
Documentary analysis
The 1929 film, Man with a Movie camera by Vertov Dziga fits the description of a documentary for several reasons. First, all the scenes were shot separately with Vertov following no pre-written script or using trained actors. Vertov’s wife Elizaveta Svilova edited and narrated the events in the documentary. The documentary’s main purpose was to present urban life in Odessa and other cities in the Soviet Union during the period of industrialization.
The documentary captures scenes in real life such as a cameraman setting up cameras and a woman giving birth. Documentaries address or instruct a situation and Vertov aimed at addressing the filming industry of the 1920s; very huge cameras that were too noisy. The documentary, The man with a Movie camera is a participatory documentary. In a participatory documentary, the acts of filmmaking directly influence the events being filmed and become a part of the film (collaborativedocumentary.wordpress.com). According to Nichols, the filmmaker steps out of from the filming processes and becomes a social actor like other characters in the documentary. The documentary for instance presents a clip of a cameraman arranging cameras in the event of making a film. This documentary exemplifies this mode by making the cameraman’s work and clips the central theme of the documentary and hence the title of the documentary.
According to Renov (18) there are four documentary tendencies. 1) To record, reveal or preserve. 2) To analyze or interrogate. 3) To express and lastly to persuade or promote. The documentary “Man with a movie camera” tends to fall in the first category. Vertov aimed at keeping a record or preserving information on the filming of the 1920s.
The documentary presents several social, technological, economical and cultural issues. The documentary presents the society in the 1920s as one of heavy indulgence and eroded cultural values. The clip showing a shot of chess pieces being swept to the centre of the board exemplifies the social indulgence of the people in those days. The clips of a woman giving birth and another one dressing present a culture that contrasts the practices of the modern society which condemns presentation of nude scenes to the public. Other clips show the urban life from which one can deduce the economic status of the people in the Soviet Union during the industrialization.
The technology was crude. The documentary’s main purpose was to “mock” the filming technology of the ancient times which was characterized by noisy and very large cameras
. Technology in filmmaking has improved tremendously to allow use of sophisticated equipment. This has led to the making of high-quality films. Current advancements in technology are set to cause great improvements in the film industry giving it more influence both economically and socially.
The documentary Man with a Movie camera was an experimentation of presenting real events, people and places. The documentary was crudely experimental and controversial. The clips making the documentary were taken within one day from dawn to dusk in various urban centers in Russia. Though aimed to be a documentary on urban life, the main subject of the documentary Man with a Movie Camera ended up being the film itself; the cameraman for instance features prominently in the documentary. Scenes negating cultural virtues such as a woman giving birth increase the controversy generated by the documentary. In making the film, Vertov was able to deploy a variety of cinematic techniques such as fast and slow motion, jump cuts, double exposure, ditch angles among others. Vertov could have used these techniques to create fiction in some of the scenes. The film was also widely criticized for its stark experimentation and incoherent staging.
Conclusion
A documentary is a film showing events, people and places in real life. The 1929 documentary A man With A Movie Camera is nonfiction depicting urban life during industrialization in Soviet union n 1920s. The documentary is a participatory documentary as filming crew also features in the documentary Itself. The technology used in the filming of the documentary was rudimentary. The cameras used were noisy, large and inefficient. The technology limited the editing of filmed content and therefore the final documentary contained entirely all the filmed clips. In spite of the technological limitations, Vertov, managed to employ several cinematic techniques such as split screen, freeze frames, slow motion among other to produce an intellectually brilliant and exhilarating documentary. The economy of the Soviet Union at the time the film was anchored on industrialization and there was little investment in the film industry. Economic limitations limited the production of quality films.
Vertov led a movement called the kinoks whose aim was to abolish all non-documentary filming styles. The politics surrounding the film industry led to its slight dismantling. Economically, Russia was experiencing increased activity and growth as a result of the industrial revolution. Many people moved to work in industries located in urban areas and the documentary captures clips of people either being engaged at work or playing. The clip of the chess board best exemplifies the social and economic aspects of urban life.
Works cited
Renov, Michael. Toward a Poetics of Documentary. In Theorizing Documentary, ed. Michael
Renov. New York: Routledge, 1993. 12-36.
6 Types of Documentary « Collaborative Documentary Workshop Porto '09." Collaborative
Documentary Workshop Porto '09. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 May 2012.
Vertov, Dziga. On Kinopravda. 1924, and The Man with the Movie Camera. 1928, in Annette
Michelson ed. Kevin O'Brien tr. Kino-Eye : The Writings of Dziga Vertov, University of
California Press, 1995.
Aitken, Ian (ed.). Encyclopedia of the Documentary Film. New York: Routledge, 2005
