Abstract
In this chapter I introduce the first of two definitions that this volume attributes to the revolutionary documentary work of the Russian Jew David Abelevich Kaufman, better known as Dziga Vertov (1896–1954), canonically acknowledged as the leading documentary forerunner in Soviet Union film history. The chapter abides by the rule of thumb that any historical reading—and, conversely, any contextual analysis and/or philosophical evaluation of Vertov’s mega-project—applies. Specifically, one should never assume or attempt to encompass his entire práxis in one breath. In that vein, the chapter modestly focuses on a rich paragraph from his exceptionally astute debut proclamation “WE: Variant of a Manifesto.” In examining Vertov’s early-career definition of documentary at close range, and through the lens of his neologism (one among many) “Kinochestvo,” I argue that nothing less than an aggressive hermeneutic gesture is required in order to unpack Vertov’s combustive definitional thrust that translates into a complex philosophical line of argumentation. In this context I present the case that Vertov’s early definition relies on and responds to the logic and structure of Hegelian Aufhebung in order to establish his space-time matrix for documentary.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
Petric (1987, 57).
- 3.
Petric explores the concept thoroughly (ibid., 11–15).
- 4.
Hicks (2007, 116; 120–122).
- 5.
Vertov (1984a/1922).
- 6.
- 7.
For the most recent in-depth research on the life and work of Vertov, see Mackay (2018).
- 8.
Dziga Vertov (1896–1954) is a pseudonym. Born David Abelevich Kaufman and later known as Dziga Vertov, the “spinning gypsy,” he was the elder brother of Mikhail and Boris Kaufman.
- 9.
For more about Vertov’s relation to Futurism, see F.T. Marinetti, “The Foundation and Manifesto of Futurism,” in 100 Artists’ Manifestos, ed. Alex Danchev (London: Penguin, 2011 [1919]).
- 10.
See his diary notes, “On Mayakovsky” (1937 [1984]; 180–181) and “More on Mayakovsky” (1937 [1984], 182–187).
- 11.
As early as 1915, Vertov founded a sound laboratory in which he experimented with sound-montage. See Bordwell (1972).
- 12.
His wife, Elizaveta Svitlova, and his brother, Michael Kaufman. See Vertov’s manifesto “The Resolution of the Council of Three” (1984b [1923]).
- 13.
See Michelson’s (1984a) comprehensive “Introduction” in her seminal translation of Vertov’s writings from Russian to English.
- 14.
See Deleuze and Guattari’s analysis of the tension between definitions and concepts (1994).
- 15.
- 16.
Note how Vertov’s opening expression to the entire manifesto is a declaration of a name: “we call ourselves kinoks.” As in the Bible (Genesis, ch. 1, 1), here the world is created by the active power of uttering language and as a linguistic space wherein the deity determines the nature and the fate of things by that act of calling them by name.
- 17.
Michelson (1984a, 5–6).
- 18.
Michelson adds that Vertov repudiated this term as saying “nothing and is gratuitous and word building” (ibid., 6). Note that later on, in the case of Grierson as well, a distinction between “photography and documentary will be made an essential explanatory power,” in Grierson (1971 [1932]).
- 19.
In his later writings, Vertov leans heavily on the notion of science. See, for example, Vertov (1924).
- 20.
- 21.
Kant (1992 [1770], 373).
- 22.
“Necessity” also appears twice in Matuszewski’s manifesto.
- 23.
Seven years later, Vertov would implement these ideas in the opening scene of The Man with the Movie Camera . For a detailed analysis of that scene, see Petric (1987).
- 24.
“Totality,” “universality,” “wholesomeness,” and “absoluteness” are recurring motifs in Vertov’s writings. One example resides in the opening set of intertitles of TMWTMC (1929). Another is Vertov (1984 [1923], 17).
- 25.
No understanding of Vertov’s “WE,” I argue, can be advanced without mention of Aristotle’s view of the role that “necessary principles” play in the process of explaining X through the essence of X. See Aristotle (1984; 1975); Angioni (2014).
- 26.
Renato Poggioli, The Theory of the Avant-Garde (New York: Harper & Row, 1971).
- 27.
For a contextual analysis of Poggioli’s observation, see Wees (1992).
- 28.
For a detailed account of the concept, see Petric (1987, 56, 59).
- 29.
Hegel proposed the notion of Aufhebung (sublation ) as the centerpiece of his method of dialectics. It implies three different moments linked in a complementary way: in the first place, “to suppress” (wegraumen ); in the second, “to retain” (aufbewahren ); and in the third, “to sublate” (hinaufnehmen ). In other words, Aufhebung implies a triple act of negating, preserving, and superseding. See Marcuse and Benhabib (1987); Marcuse (2013); and Smith (1986).
Works Cited and Further Reading
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Aristotle. 1984a. Metaphysics. In The Complete Works of Aristotle, ed. Jonathan Barnes, 1552–1729. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
———. 1984b. Categories. In The Complete Works of Aristotle, ed. Jonathan Barnes, 3–24. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Aristotle, and Jonathan Barnes. 1975. Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics. Clarendon Aristotle Series. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Bacon, Francis. 1620. Novum Organum: Or True Directions Concerning the Interpretation of Nature. http://www.constitution.org/bacon/nov_org.htm.
Bordwell, David. 1972. Dziga Vertov. Film Comment 8 (1): 38–45.
Deleuze, Gilles, and Félix Guattari. 1994. In What Is Philosophy? European Perspectives, ed. Lawrence Kritzman. New York: Columbia University Press.
Geva, Dan. 2017. Reinvisioning Dziga Vertov: Ten Enduring Diktats for Documentary Cinema. In The Philosophy of Documentary Film, ed. David LaRocca, 305–325. New York: Lexington Books.
———. 2018. Toward a Philosophy of the Documentarian: A Prolegomenon. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Gill, Mary Louise. 2005. Aristotle’s Metaphysics Reconsidered. Journal of the History of Philosophy 43 (3): 223–241.
Grierson, John. 1971. First Principles of Documentary. In Grierson on Documentary, ed. Forsyth Hardy, 145–157. New York: Praeger.
Hicks, Jeremy. 2007. Dziga Vertov: Defining Documentary Film. New York: I.B. Tauris.
Kant, Immanuel. 1992. On the Form and Principles of the Sensible and the Intelligible World [Inaugural Dissertation] (1770). In Theoretical Philosophy, 1755–1770, ed. David Walford, 373–376. The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mackay, John. 2018. Dziga Vertov: Life and Work. Vol. I. Boston: Academic Studies Press.
Marcuse, Herbert, and Seyla Benhabib. 1987. Hegel’s Ontology and the Theory of Historicity. Trans. S. Benhabib. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
———. 2013. Reason and Revolution. New York: Routledge.
Michelson, Annette. 1984a. Introduction. In Kino-Eye: The Writings of Dziga Vertov, ed. Annette Michelson, xv–lxi. Berkeley: University of California Press.
———, ed. 1984b [1924]. Berkeley: University of California Press. The Birth of Kino-Eye. In Kino-Eye: The Writings of Dziga Vertov, ed. Annette Michelson. Berkeley: University of California Press.
———, ed. 1984c [1937]. Berkeley: University of California Press. The Birth of Kino-Eye. In Kino-Eye: The Writings of Dziga Vertov. “On Mayakovsky.” In Kino-Eye: The Writings of Dziga Vertov, ed. Annette Michelson, 180–181. Berkeley: University of California Press.
———, ed. 1984d [1937]. Berkeley: University of California Press. The Birth of Kino-Eye. In Kino-Eye: The Writings of Dziga Vertov. More on Mayakovsky. In Kino-Eye: The Writings of Dziga Vertov, ed. Annette Michelson, 181–187. Berkeley: University of California Press.
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Petric, Vlada. 1987. Constructivism in Film. The Man with the Movie Camera: A Cinematic Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
———. 1996. Vertov’s Transposition of Reality. In Beyond Document: Essays on Nonfiction Film, ed. Charles Warren, 271–295. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England.
Poggioli, Renato. 1971. The Theory of the Avant-Garde. New York: Harper & Row.
Roberts, Graham. 2000. In The Man with the Movie Camera, ed. Richard Taylor. The Russian Cinema Series. London: I.B. Tauris Publishers.
Smith, Steven B. 1986. Hegel’s Critique of Liberalism. American Political Science Review: 121–139.
Tsivian, Yuri. Lines of Resistance: Dziga Vertov and the Twenties. Trans. Julian Graffy. In Masterpieces of Modernist Cinema, ed. Ted Perry, 85–110. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2006.
Vertov, Dziga. 1929. The Man with the Movie Camera (Чeлoвeк C Кинoaппapaтом/Chelovek S Kinoapparatom). USSR.
———. 1984a [1922]. We: Variant of a Manifesto. In Kino-Eye: The Writings of Dziga Vertov, ed. Annette Michelson, 5–9. Berkeley: University of California Press.
———. 1984b [1923]. The Resolution of the Council of Three. In Kino-Eye: The Writings of Dziga Vertov, ed. Annette Michelson. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Wees, William C. 1992. Light Moving in Time: Studies in the Visual Aesthetics of Avant-Garde Film. Berkeley: University of California Press.
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Geva, D. (2021). 1922: Dziga Vertov. In: A Philosophical History of Documentary, 1895–1959. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-79466-8_8
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