Jon Burrows 1514623
Do you agree that there is ‘a gendered dimension to Vertov’s vision of a synthesis
between human beings and machines’ (Malcolm Turvey) in Man with a Movie
Camera?
Dziga Vertov was documentary director and film theorist in the Soviet Union whose
entire political and filmmaking philosophy was based on the merging of man and machine.
Supporting the socialist philosophy of the time, Vertov strived to promote rapid
industrialization in the Soviet Union and therefore, developed a style of filmmaking that
supported this (gaining many followers of similar beliefs), “We call ourselves the Kinoks –
as opposed to “cinematographers” a herd of junkmen doing rather well peddling their
rags.” 1 In We: Variant of a Manifesto, the term “kinok” is defined, “(“cinema-eye men.”) a
neologism coined by Vertov, involving a play on the words kino (“cinema” or “film”) and
oko, the latter an obsolescent and poetic word meaning “eye”. The -ok ending is the
transliteration of a traditional suffix used in Russian to indicate a male, human agent.” 2
Here, we see that Vertov’s philosophy is based completely around ‘male agents’, his
blending of human and machine is gendered to exclude the female. Possibly one reason for
this could be that the female gender is traditionally depicted as more emotional than the
male gender, and Vertov suggests that “the ‘psychological’ prevents man from being as
precise as a stopwatch; it interferes with his desire for kinship with the machine.” 3 Thus,
one could assume that by removing the female, Vertov thought, that man can become less
involved with emotion and more focused on the body and labour:
Our path leads through the poetry of machines, from the bungling citizen to the
perfect electric man. In revealing the machine’s soul, in causing the worker to
1
Dziga Vertov and Annette Michelson, Kino-Eye, 1st edn (London: Pluto, 1984), p. 5.
2
Ibid.
3
Ibid. p. 7.
1
, love his workbench, the peasant his tractor, the engineer his engine – we
introduce creative joy into all mechanical labour, we bring people into closer
kinship with machines, we foster new people. The new man, free of
unwieldiness and clumsiness, will have the light, precise movement of
machines, and he will be the gratifying subject of our films. 4
Vertov speaks of this supposed ‘new people’, but his entire rhetoric revolves around
the noun of ‘man’, there is no mention of women. Ultimately, the future that Vertov envisions,
where human and machine combine, results only in a ‘new man’. We are left wondering what
he has planned for the female gender. This essay will argue that Vertov’s 1929 film Man with
a Movie Camera presents a vision of ‘synthesis between human and machine’ in a way that is
gendered to include men rather than women.
In order to understand the motivations behind Man with a Movie Camera, one needs to
explore the political state of the time in which it was made. In his book of the same name,
Graham Roberts explores the historical context behind the film. He cites a 1925 speech by
Stalin that resolved, “in general the victory of socialism is unconditionally possible in one
country,”5 and that the “political doctrine that had to be represented in documentary films,
was the need to reassess the nature of economic development in the Soviet Union […] the
leaders of the Soviet Union had to focus on quickening industrialization without outside
help.”6 Roberts notes that Man with a Movie Camera was made and released before the
“economic crisis of capitalism”7 and Stalin was suggesting that the “capitalist countries” had
been overhauled by his “political forms” and to “achieve the final victory of socialism,” they
would have to also ‘overhaul’ them in technical and economic senses. 8 Roberts suggested that
this is the reason that Vertov’s presentation of “labour, the production of steel and coal, and
4
Ibid. p. 8.
5
Graham Roberts, The Man With The Movie Camera, 1st edn (London: I.B. Tauris, 2001). p. 8.
6
Ibid.
7
Ibid. p. 12.
8
Ibid.
Do you agree that there is ‘a gendered dimension to Vertov’s vision of a synthesis between
human beings and machines’ (Malcolm Turvey) in Man with a Movie Camera? Page 2 of
9
Do you agree that there is ‘a gendered dimension to Vertov’s vision of a synthesis
between human beings and machines’ (Malcolm Turvey) in Man with a Movie
Camera?
Dziga Vertov was documentary director and film theorist in the Soviet Union whose
entire political and filmmaking philosophy was based on the merging of man and machine.
Supporting the socialist philosophy of the time, Vertov strived to promote rapid
industrialization in the Soviet Union and therefore, developed a style of filmmaking that
supported this (gaining many followers of similar beliefs), “We call ourselves the Kinoks –
as opposed to “cinematographers” a herd of junkmen doing rather well peddling their
rags.” 1 In We: Variant of a Manifesto, the term “kinok” is defined, “(“cinema-eye men.”) a
neologism coined by Vertov, involving a play on the words kino (“cinema” or “film”) and
oko, the latter an obsolescent and poetic word meaning “eye”. The -ok ending is the
transliteration of a traditional suffix used in Russian to indicate a male, human agent.” 2
Here, we see that Vertov’s philosophy is based completely around ‘male agents’, his
blending of human and machine is gendered to exclude the female. Possibly one reason for
this could be that the female gender is traditionally depicted as more emotional than the
male gender, and Vertov suggests that “the ‘psychological’ prevents man from being as
precise as a stopwatch; it interferes with his desire for kinship with the machine.” 3 Thus,
one could assume that by removing the female, Vertov thought, that man can become less
involved with emotion and more focused on the body and labour:
Our path leads through the poetry of machines, from the bungling citizen to the
perfect electric man. In revealing the machine’s soul, in causing the worker to
1
Dziga Vertov and Annette Michelson, Kino-Eye, 1st edn (London: Pluto, 1984), p. 5.
2
Ibid.
3
Ibid. p. 7.
1
, love his workbench, the peasant his tractor, the engineer his engine – we
introduce creative joy into all mechanical labour, we bring people into closer
kinship with machines, we foster new people. The new man, free of
unwieldiness and clumsiness, will have the light, precise movement of
machines, and he will be the gratifying subject of our films. 4
Vertov speaks of this supposed ‘new people’, but his entire rhetoric revolves around
the noun of ‘man’, there is no mention of women. Ultimately, the future that Vertov envisions,
where human and machine combine, results only in a ‘new man’. We are left wondering what
he has planned for the female gender. This essay will argue that Vertov’s 1929 film Man with
a Movie Camera presents a vision of ‘synthesis between human and machine’ in a way that is
gendered to include men rather than women.
In order to understand the motivations behind Man with a Movie Camera, one needs to
explore the political state of the time in which it was made. In his book of the same name,
Graham Roberts explores the historical context behind the film. He cites a 1925 speech by
Stalin that resolved, “in general the victory of socialism is unconditionally possible in one
country,”5 and that the “political doctrine that had to be represented in documentary films,
was the need to reassess the nature of economic development in the Soviet Union […] the
leaders of the Soviet Union had to focus on quickening industrialization without outside
help.”6 Roberts notes that Man with a Movie Camera was made and released before the
“economic crisis of capitalism”7 and Stalin was suggesting that the “capitalist countries” had
been overhauled by his “political forms” and to “achieve the final victory of socialism,” they
would have to also ‘overhaul’ them in technical and economic senses. 8 Roberts suggested that
this is the reason that Vertov’s presentation of “labour, the production of steel and coal, and
4
Ibid. p. 8.
5
Graham Roberts, The Man With The Movie Camera, 1st edn (London: I.B. Tauris, 2001). p. 8.
6
Ibid.
7
Ibid. p. 12.
8
Ibid.
Do you agree that there is ‘a gendered dimension to Vertov’s vision of a synthesis between
human beings and machines’ (Malcolm Turvey) in Man with a Movie Camera? Page 2 of
9
