The discussion in class of the film we watched today, “Man with a Movie Camera” by Vertov in 1929, brought attention to the main purpose of this film. When I was watching it, I wrote down in my notes, “camera is seeing”. That was my quick way of saying what Annie put brilliantly in class when she said, “the camera is an extension of your eye”. Vertov shows this when he puts the shot of an eye into the lens of the camera. He does this a couple times throughout the film. Also, when the woman wakes up and is opening the shades, Vertov cuts to the lens of a camera slowly closing. He mirrors images a lot in this film. I believe he does this to show what cinema can do. The camera can do so much more than just the human eye can.

Vertov’s film reminded me of a  Lumiere film because he shows a lot of events that are regular and happen during every day life. For example, he shoots people getting their hair done, their shoes shined, doing laundry, getting a manicure. These are normal events. However, the way he edits them together and mirrors  the events shows that he is creating a different kind of story line and meaning with the use of the camera and editing. He is definitely manipulating reality in this film, which in fact would be more like a Melies film. The camera stand appears to be setting itself up, with no people around. The chairs in the movie theater go down even though no one is there doing that action. In class, I said that it was showing the magic of cinema. But really it shows the manipulation of reality.

Something else that really interested me was the repetition use of transportation. Throughout the entire film, there were shots of trains, bikes, horse and buggies, cars, planes, and boats. I believe that Vertov used these images to represent the movement of film. It shows that it is a new art form that has sprung from the stillness of photography into this great new movement of images.