Man with a Movie Camera (1929-2003)

Director: Dziga Vertov
Producer: Dziga Vertov
Genre: Documentary / Independent Film / Avant-garde
Country: Russia
Language: None / RU / EN subtitles

Dziga Vertov’s Man With A Movie Camera is considered one of the most innovative and influential films of the silent era. Vertov proclaimed the primacy of camera “Kino-Eye” over the human eye. The camera lens was a machine that could be perfected infinitely to grasp the world in its entirety and organize visual chaos into a coherent, objective picture.

Startlingly modern, this film utilizes a groundbreaking style of rapid editing and incorporates innumerable other cinematic effects to create a work of amazing power and energy. This film is famous for the range of cinematic techniques Vertov invents, deploys or develops, such as double exposure, fast motion, slow motion, freeze frames, jump cuts, split screens, Dutch angles, extreme close-ups, tracking shots, footage played backwards, stop motion animations and a self-reflexive style.

The film was released with a soundtrack composed by Jason Swinscoe and performed by the British jazz and electronic outfit The Cinematic Orchestra.

In the 2012 Sight and Sound poll, film critics voted Man with a Movie Camera the 8th best film ever made.

Le Peuple Migrateur / Winged Migration (2001)

Director: Jacques Perrin, Jacques Cluzaud, Michel Debats
Producer: Christophe Barratier
Genre: Documentary
Country: France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, United States
Language: French / Russian / EN subtitles

Winged Migration is dedicated to the French ornithologist Jean Dorst, showcasing the migratory patterns of birds, shot over the course of three years on all seven continents.

The movie was shot from ultralights, para-gliders, and hot air balloons, as well as trucks, motorcycles, motorboats, remote-controlled robots, and a French Navy warship. Its producer says that “Winged Migration” is neither a documentary nor fiction, but rather a “natural tale”.
The film states that no special effects were used in the filming of the birds, although some entirely CGI segments that view Earth from outer space augment the real-life footage.

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Microcosmos – Le peuple de l’herbe (1996)

Director: Claude Nuridsany, Marie Pérennou
Producer: Christophe Barratier, Yvette Mallet, Jacques Perrin
Genre: Documentary /Abstract Film / Cinéma Vérité
Country: France, Switzerland, Italy
Language: French / RU / EN subtitles

A documentary of insect life in meadows and ponds, using incredible close-ups, slow motion, and time-lapse photography. Utilizing special macroscopic photographic techniques, filmmakers Claude Nuridsany and Marie Perennou created this fascinating and visually spectacular look at the hidden worlds in the life cycle of an ordinary meadow in France. When seen through the lens of Nuridsany and Perennou’s cameras, insects become gigantic beasts, blades of grass turn into towering monuments, and raindrops form puddles that resemble vast oceans. The filmmakers find humor, drama, and beauty in the lives of these tiny flora and fauna as caterpillars transform themselves into butterflies, beetles struggle with their day’s foraging, and snails reproduce their species.
Microcosmos was a multiple prize winner at the 1996 French Academy of Cinema Awards; the American release version features narration by actress Kristin Scott Thomas.

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TimeScapes (2012)

Director: Tom Lowe
Producer: Tom Lowe
Genre: Documentary / World Cinema
Country: New Zealand
Language: English / None

TimeScapes is the debut film from award-winning cinematographer and director Tom Lowe. The film features stunning slow-motion and timelapse cinematography of the landscapes, people, and wildlife of the American South West. Lowe spent 2 years roaming the Southwest in his Toyota pickup truck shooting the film.

TimeScapes was shot, edited and color-graded at 4K resolution (4096 x 2304 pixels).

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Chronos (1985)

Director: Ron Fricke
Producer: Mark Magidson
Genre: Documentary / World Cinema
Country: United States
Language: English / None

Chronos is 42 minutes long and has no actors or dialog. The soundtrack consists of a single continuous piece by composer Michael Stearns. Filmed in dozens of locations on five continents, the film relates to the concept of time passing on different scales – the bulk of the film covers the history of civilization, from pre-history to Egypt to Rome to Late Antiquity to the rise of Western Europe in the Middle Ages to the Renaissance to the modern era. It centers on European themes but not exclusively. Other time scales include the passing of seasons, and the passing of night and day, and the passing shadows of the sun in an afternoon to the passing of people on the street. These themes are intermingled with symbolic meaning.

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Baraka (1992)

Director: Ron Fricke
Producer: Mark Magidson
Genre: Documentary / World Cinema
Country: United States
Language: English / EN subtitles / None

Baraka is an ancient Sufi word, which can be translated as “a blessing, or as the breath, or essence of life from which the evolutionary process unfolds.”

Baraka has no plot, no storyline, no actors, no dialogue nor any voice-over. Instead, the film uses themes to present new steps and evoke emotion through pure cinema. Baraka is a kaleidoscopic, global compilation of both natural events and by fate, life and activities of humanity on Earth.

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