Dziga Vertov - Man With A Movie Camera (Soviet Union, 1929)
After circling the Arctic, one rotation per day, another gem seems to have risen from the subpolar surface: a documentary depicting daily life in the Soviet Union during the Twennies of 20C.
"I was returning from the railroad station. In my ears, there remained chugs and bursts of steam from a departing train. Somebody cries in laughter, a whistle, the station bell, the clanking locomotive, whispers, shouts, farewells. And walking away I thought I need to find a machine not only to describe but to register, to photograph these sounds. Otherwise, one cannot organize or assemble them. They fly like time. Perhaps a camera? That records the visual. But to organize the visual world and not the audible world? Is this the answer?"
- Dziga Vertov, according to Wikipedia
Well, it may have taken quite a while (a near seven decades) but it seems someone painting with microphones, gave an answer to that question in many, clearly audible colors.
In 1996, the Tromsø International Film Festival (TIFF) commissioned Geir Jenssen (Biosphere) to provide sound for Vertov's vision, following original instructions the director made for accompanying piano. Jenssen ended up scoring half the movie, leaving the other half for his colleague Per Martinsen. The video blogged here shows the part of the movie with Jenssen's soundtrack, released in 2001 on Substrata². For more details about the film and the music, click here, here and here.
biosphere.no
tiff.no
