Man with a Movie Camera

(Chelovek s kino-apparatom, Dziga Vertov, Soviet Union 1929, 80 min., 35mm)

Special Presentation Featuring the Alloy Orchestra. In the original city symphony and quintessential experimental essay, Soviet master Dziga Vertov traverses the vibrant cityscapes of Kiev, Kharkov, Moscow, and Odessa, using a variety of camera techniques to deconstruct motion and montage simultaneously. Eliminating script, intertitles, and actors, Vertov’s “Kino-eye” dissects the very language of cinema. The renowned Alloy Orchestra will perform the live musical accompaniment, creating a cinematic experience not to be missed.

“Movie Camera has become Alloy’s signature score. It’s more audacious than most of our scores, combining lots of found sounds and energetic drumming. Vertov himself was a music composer, and attended the Moscow Music Conservatory, where he specialized in creating ‘constructivist noise music’ which relied on using found sounds made with everyday objects. Vertov wrote several pages of notes for the music director for the Moscow premiere of the film. Those notes, brought to Alloy by Paolo Cherchi Usai and Yuri Tsivian, form the basis of Alloy’s composition.” – Ken Winokur, Alloy Orchestra