Citation: # Petric, Vlada. “Dziga Vertov as Theorist.” Cinema Journal 18:1 Fall 1978, pp29-44

Log entry

1. Key/significant points or ideas:

-The reading outlines Vertov as a theorist.

-Vertov’s ‘Film-Eye’ emphasized that this method implied depicting ‘Life-As-It-Is’ by the direct recording of facts found in real life; he also insisted that the ‘Film- Eye’ had act not through the medium of theater or literature, since he considered them ‘surrogates of life’

-Vertov’s interest is not in the relationship ‘art and reality’, but rather in ‘reality and organization of reality’

-Vertov outlines the main duty of the cameraman of observing events and objects in life which are observation of the place, observation of moving characters or objects, observation of the theme.

-The author reviews Vertov’s ‘Film-Eye’ method; it is Hegelian in essence and Marxist in form; it functions on a  dialectical principle; and it is always aware of political momentum.

2. Comments:

– This reading provides an in-depth guide of Vertov’s theory and an extensive concept of the documentary cinema in both the silent and sound era.