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Vertov's introduction to Man with a Movie Camera (1929)

RGALI (Russian State Archive of Literature and Art), f. 2091, op. 2, d. 204
KD: 1929
KL: 3

Vystuplenie na prosmotre dokumentalnogo filma "MWMC" Avtograf

1:

Comrades, I will restrict myself to a few remarks about the cinematic-work
that we're about to see on the screen.

The film is done by workers of the Kino-eye school-the same school that has
released a whole series of documentary, non-acted films.

On this occasion, and in connection with the crisis that has recently
confronted Soviet cinema, in spite of our common thematic tasks -- a crisis
of the means of cinematic expression, a crisis of film language - the
workers of the Kino Eye group decided to carry out a scientific experiment,
an experiment in production, specially directed toward the improvement of
that language, toward perfecting it.

In the opinion of these workers in cinema, this experiment, which we have
called "MWMC," has proved successful, and gives the possibility of
revivifying all sections of our overall cinema front, and in particular on
the front of unplayed or non-acted cinema.

The theme taken up in this film, that of an excerpt from the diary of a
cameraman, is considerably narrower than that of my earlier feature films
(on industrialization, on the modernization of the whole country).

The work of a cameraman outside the studio is shown, along with a series of
examples of his work. The entirety of this "excerpt from a diary" is shown
rather than narrated. Words and intertitles are absent from the film, and
the shots, the pieces of film are connected with one another visually, and
coincide with chains of concepts. It is impossible to "read" this film, and
it is very desirable that, during a viewing of the film, the conceptual
content of the visual phrases NOT be translated into words (as usually
happens when watching theatrical-fictional films.)

Besides the theme of the cameraman, you'll see the theme of "labor and
leisure," of "woman workers," of "the workers club and the pub," of "cinema
about cinema," and many other themes woven together.

Negative moments (of life) are also shown in the film, which are necessary
to achieve a more sharply accented emphasis upon the rest of the material.
The material is interpreted and moves along the film according to three
basic intersecting lines: "life as it is" on the screen, "life as it is" on
the filmstrip, and simply "life as it is."

This of course does not mean, that all of life as it is, is shown. In our
experiment only those moments of life that coincide with the productive
moments of the cameraman's work are displayed. While showing and selecting
these moments of life, we submitted in our assignment to one fundamental
form: the diary of a cameraman or examples of a cameraman's work outside
the studio.

As a whole, this experiment sets itself the following tasks:

First, to raise the low level of cinematic expression, to raise the level
of cinematic language to the next and higher level - and in this way to
raise the quality of our cinematic production.

Second: to oppose to the usual clichИd fictional film with its kissing and
murders a new example of cinematic work, new methods for the recording of
life without the help, the services, the mediation of the actor, of sets,
of the studio.

Third, to create the first ever film in the USSR without words, without
intertitles - that is, to bring the language of cinema closer to an
international language.

And fourth and finally: to offer a fragment of hearty, joyous and happy
labor, which is so unlike labor performed under duress, so unlike the labor
of people oppressed by capitalism.

We attempted to suffuse the entire experiment with cheerfulness,
effervescence, and smiles. You can judge the extent to which we succeeded
when you see the film.

My comrades and I (fellow filmmakers) were somewhat embarrassed and
perplexed by comments we heard in regard to the film's final section,
during which life rushes forward at a speed of 5 minutes per minute. But we
were reassured by recent statements from workers, in particular by one
woman of the "Red Seamstress" factory, who saw the film and explained to
the audience that she UNDERSTOOD it, that she apprehended that incredible
movement as a deliberate compression (of time), as an impatient driving-
forward, as a raising of the pulse of our time.

In conclusion I would appeal to the audience with a request to watch our
experiment with special attention, inasmuch as it conveys itself with
suddenness and in uninhibited form. As a consequence, its unusualness
demands your full concentration.


Translation: J. MacKay