The Writings of Dziga Vertov

Many writings of Soviet filmmaker Dziga Vertov seem timeless. For instance, in reference to cinema art, Vertov writes "the mixture of bad colors, even those ideally selected from the spectrum, produces not white, but mud." Such commentary, written in the early 1920's, seems apropos nowadays in light of the state of mass filmmaking. Many of the films produced for mass consumption are lacking and contain too much gratuitous violence. But hey,that must be what sells.

And in another writing, Vertov speaks of "Kino-Eye" which he explains as "showing people without masks, without makeup, catching them through the eye of the camera in a moment when they are not acting....laid bare by the camera." Again Vertov, writing in the 1920s certainly seems prophetic in light of all the reality programs produced in 2007 for television.