Man With a Cinema Camera (1929) with Live Score

Experience one of cinema’s most astonishing experiments on the big screen, with live music. Dziga Vertov’s Man with a Movie Camera is rarely screened, making this a special opportunity to encounter this landmark of experimental documentary in a truly communal, live setting.

Filmed across a variety of Ukrainian cities, Vertov’s exhilarating, narrative-free film follows a day in the life of a modern metropolis. With dizzying montages and audacious camera work, Vertov turns everyday life into a kinetic visual symphony. The camera becomes both observer and subject, revealing how cinema itself can transform our perception of reality.

Vertov called for cinema to capture “life caught unawares” and envisioned the kino-eye as a way of seeing “without limits and distances.” His radical approach has influenced generations of filmmakers, from experimental and documentary artists to contemporary directors.

As the BFI puts it, the film is “one of cinema’s sharpest, most exciting experiences.” Nearly a century later, its speed, invention and sheer strangeness remain startlingly modern.

Come see this extraordinary film—and hear it come alive.

“Silent Film has no finer custodians. ” Nicholas Barber, BBC Culture