Visual Anthropology of Dziga Vertov

Abstract

The article, on the example of the classic documentary “The Sixth Part of the World” (1926) by the pioneer of Soviet anthropological cinema Dzigi Vertov examines the film-construction of the multinational Soviet Union. Analyzing archival data, director’s interviews and contemporary testimonies, the author of the article traces the evolution of a film project in connection with the processes taking place at that time in society and cinema. In the mid 1920s and early 1930s filmmakers of the USSR united the peoples of the new country of the Soviets on the screen — created the Soviet myth, which the party leadership needed so much. Based on an illustrative example of the work of director Dziga Vertov, the titular person in the Russian documentary, the article explores the use of the possibilities of cinema: a close-up image of the Soviet man as the “builder of communism”, “the master of the sixth part of the world”; in general terms — a multinational “friendly country” progressively evolving under socialism. Due to the specifics of silent cinema, the film “The Sixth Part of the World” is a kind of cinema text, consisting of an approximately equal number of film frames and text captions alternating in the narrative. And therefore, the method of analyzing the film as a visual-text work was its research decoding — “translation” into text format. The article explores the potential of the film as a form of visual anthropology and a multi-component historical source that displays the silhouettes of culture and ideology of its time on the screen. The article concludes that Dziga Vertov and his film group managed to reflect the spirit of the times, and his creative method elevated documentary materials to the level of an artistic image. Cinematic poetry and Marxist’s philosophy were merged in this anthropological film.