# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/dziga-vertov
# Generated: 2026-09-07T19:40:02.854Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/dziga-vertov"
name: "Dziga Vertov"
slug: "dziga-vertov"
description: "He built a documentary grammar before the word existed — Soviet newsreels as kinetic argument, the camera as participant not witness. Man with a Movie Camera still lands in the top ten of greatest-ever lists, and his theories seeded cinéma vérité decades before France gave it the name."
tagline: "Russian-Soviet documentary/avantgarde filmmaker (1896-1954)"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/David_Kaufman_(Dziga_Vertov)_1913.jpg?width=1200"
gender: "male"
category:
  name: "Directors"
  slug: "directors"
profileType:
  name: "Movie Director"
  slug: "director"
  entityType: "https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q33999"
birthDate: "1896-01-02"
deathDate: "1954-02-12"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           55.13
  momentum:             0
  historical:           24.390204
  currentAttention:     0
  sourceConfidence:     65
  profileCompleteness:  65
  trendDirection:       "FALLING"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: null
tags:
  - name: "Actors"
    slug: "actors"
  - name: "Writer / Author"
    slug: "writer-author"
  - name: "Screenwriting"
    slug: "screenwriting"
  - name: "Television"
    slug: "television"
  - name: "Film Directing"
    slug: "film-directing"
  - name: "20th Century"
    slug: "20th-century"
platforms:
  - platform:  "IMDB"
    url:       "https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0895048/"
    handle:    "nm0895048"
sources:
  - url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dziga_Vertov"
    title: "Wikipedia"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q55193"
    title: "Wikidata"
    type:  "WIKIDATA"
  - url: "https://pantheon.world/profile/person/Dziga%20Vertov"
    title: "Pantheon 2.0"
    type:  "DATABASE"
  - url: "https://ba.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%94%D0%B7%D0%B8%D0%B3%D0%B0_%D0%92%D0%B5%D1%80%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%B2"
    title: "Дзига Вертов"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://be.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%94%D0%B7%D1%8B%D0%B3%D0%B0_%D0%92%D0%B5%D1%80%D1%82%D0%B0%D1%9E"
    title: "Дзыга Вертаў"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Дзига Вертов"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bn.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A6%A1%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%9C%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%97%E0%A6%BE_%E0%A6%AD%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B0%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%A4%E0%A7%8B%E0%A6%AD"
    title: "ডিজিগা ভার্তোভ"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dziga_V%C3%A9rtov"
    title: "Dziga Vértov"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://crh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dziga_Vertov"
    title: "Dziga Vertov"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dziga_Vertov"
    title: "Dziga Vertov"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dziga_Vertov"
    title: "Dziga Vertov"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dsiga_Wertow"
    title: "Dsiga Wertow"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%A4%CE%B6%CE%AF%CE%B3%CE%BA%CE%B1_%CE%92%CE%B5%CF%81%CF%84%CF%8C%CF%86"
    title: "Τζίγκα Βερτόφ"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dziga_Vertov"
    title: "Dziga Vertov"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dziga_Vertov"
    title: "Dziga Vertov"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "ژیگا ورتوف"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dziga_Vertov"
    title: "Dziga Vertov"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dziga_Vertov"
    title: "Dziga Vertov"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://gl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dziga_Vertov"
    title: "Dziga Vertov"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ha.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dziga_Vertov"
    title: "Dziga Vertov"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%93%D7%96%D7%99%D7%92%D7%94_%D7%95%D7%A8%D7%98%D7%95%D7%91"
    title: "דזיגה ורטוב"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://hr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dziga_Vertov"
    title: "Dziga Vertov"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dziga_Vertov"
    title: "Dziga Vertov"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://hy.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D5%81%D5%AB%D5%A3%D5%A1_%D5%8E%D5%A5%D6%80%D5%BF%D5%B8%D5%BE"
    title: "Ձիգա Վերտով"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://it.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dziga_Vertov"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://ru.wikiquote.org/wiki/%D0%94%D0%B7%D0%B8%D0%B3%D0%B0_%D0%92%D0%B5%D1%80%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%B2"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://musicbrainz.org/artist/f52e2c70-de8c-4785-997b-54d9ece9c85a"
    title: "MusicBrainz"
    type:  "DATABASE"
  - url: "https://www.discogs.com/artist/325076"
    title: "Discogs"
    type:  "DATABASE"
  - url: "https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dziga_V%C3%A9rtov"
    title: "Dziga Vértov"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%AF%D8%B2%D9%8A%D8%AC%D8%A7_%D9%81%D9%8A%D8%B1%D8%AA%D9%88%D9%81"
    title: "دزيجا فيرتوف"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Born David Kaufman in 1896, he took the pseudonym Dziga Vertov and joined the Kinoks collective alongside his future wife Elizaveta Svilova and brother Mikhail Kaufman. Through the 1920s he turned Soviet newsreels into formal experiments, arguing the camera could see truths the human eye missed. In 1929 he released Man with a Movie Camera — no actors, no script, just montage and motion — working again with Mikhail on cinematography and his younger brother Boris Kaufman. Critics in the 2012 Sight & Sound poll ranked it the eighth-greatest film ever made. He died in Moscow in 1954, but the cooperative that borrowed his name in 1968 and the vérité tradition that followed kept the argument alive.