英语论文网

hnology and the advancements of humanity. Whilst the work of Curtis, Flaherty and Makepeace valorises cultures that may appear timeless to some eyes, or at least slow to change, Vertov draws upon the swiftly changing metropolis and its inhabitants. The film is open to many interpretations, partly because Vertov uses innovative techniques and sometimes openly acknowledges the camera’s presence, the style invites debate and an imaginative ownership of what is being watched. The viewer may more readily be able to place their own reading upon what they are observing due to the open style of filming whereby Vertov lets the camera run seemingly with little directorial input.
　　“Reflexive documentary… arose from a desire to make the conventions of representation themselves more apparent and to challenge the impression of reality… the viewer’s attention is drawn to the device as well as the effect”. (Nichols 1991: 33)
　　Vertov’s inclusion of the camera’s own possibilities and the presence of the camera operator in some shots is a significant detour from other ethnographic films of the time, “the veil of illusory absence is shorn away” (ibid: 44). As a critique of fictionalised narratives and escapist fantasy, Vertov strove to detail ordinary people in their daily lives and work, from a socialist perspective this suggested the importance of labour and industry as a way towards progress and change. His approach is a reflexive act that openly admits to the artifice of filmmaking, particularly as he employs many camera tricks such as the split screen and freeze frame. In this reading, his film is an experimental and early detour from the instructive and observational films as well as more fictionalised accounts produced during his life time; he rejected dramatisation in favour of the realism of life unfolding. As a social document and film concerned with depicting people, Vertov is fervent in his desire to record ‘the people’, and yet his own beliefs and values, from a contemporary perspective seem dedicated more to the greater impulse of the Soviet era. People in the film appear reduced to being part of the machine, industrial units that lose any sense of individual characteristics and personal values and beliefs. They are portrayed almost as tools of the greater good, striving through physical toil towards a collective goal and are devoid of any real individuality. In his symbolic city of ceaseless activity the more personal aspects of Curtis or Flaherty’s films, and the new found relevance of Makepeace’s documentary are absent. For all Vertov’s desire to depict the truth in as unbiased a way as possible, he proves himself to be immersed in his own culture and time.
　　Vertov’s belief is in the eyewitness role of the camera, presenting what he might consider is an unmediated reality which uses the camera “not in its egotism but in its willingness to reveal people with absolutely no pretence” (Vertov quoted in Rouch 1995: 87). Perhaps his seeming commitment to the neutrality of filming is reflected in more recent opinions on the role of ethnographic documentation, where “due to the apparent materiality of [films]… they have been perceived as accurate records of the ethnographic reality” (Hastrup 1992: 13). Such an assertion can never, of course, be the whole truth; films are valuable, but only in reflecting one aspect of anthropology, filtered through the producer’s own choices and production values. All forms of documentation 本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。