The Dziga Vertov Group (french: Groupe Dziga Vertov) was formed around 1969 by politically active filmmakers including

Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as Fran� ...

and

Jean-Pierre Gorin Jean-Pierre Gorin (born 17 April 1943) is a French filmmaker and professor, best known for his work with ''French New Wave, Nouvelle Vague'' luminary Jean-Luc Godard, during what is often referred to as Godard's "radical" period. Jean-Pierre Go ...

. Their films are defined primarily for

Brechtian Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...

forms,

Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

ideology, and a lack of personal authorship.

History

The roots of the project began with Godard's increased collaboration with other politically-motivated filmmakers, such as the group project ''Cinetracts'', the incomplete 1968 film ''One A.M.'' shot with

D.A. Pennebaker Donn Alan Pennebaker (; July 15, 1925 – August 1, 2019) was an American documentary filmmaker and one of the pioneers of direct cinema. Performing arts and politics were his primary subjects. In 2013, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sc ...

, and the 1970 film '' British Sounds/See You at Mao'' made with

Jean-Henri Roger Jean-Henri Roger (24 January 1949 – 31 December 2012) was a French film director, screenwriter and actor. He directed the 1983 film ''Cap Canaille'', which was entered into the 33rd Berlin International Film Festival. Selected filmograp ...

. Eventually Godard and Gorin officially started creating films under the name Dziga Vertov Group, named after 1920s-'30s

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

filmmaker

Dziga Vertov Dziga Vertov (russian: Дзига Вертов, born David Abelevich Kaufman, russian: Дави́д А́белевич Ка́уфман, and also known as Denis Kaufman; – 12 February 1954) was a Soviet Union, Soviet pioneer documentary f ...

(1896-1954). They are generally credited with having made four films: *1970 ''Pravda'' *1970 '' Le Vent d'est'' (''Wind from the East'') *1971 ''Luttes en Italie'' (''Struggles in Italy''), originally ''Lotte in Italia'' *1971 ''Vladimir et Rosa'' (''Vladimir and Rosa'') The project eventually dissolved soon after the completion of 1971's ''Vladimir et Rosa''.

Legacy

Following the last film made under the group name, Godard and Gorin made two more films together in 1972: ''

Letter to Jane ''Letter to Jane'' is a 1972 French postscript film to ''Tout Va Bien'' directed by Jean-Luc Godard and Jean-Pierre Gorin and made under the auspices of the Dziga Vertov Group. Narrated in a back-and-forth style by both Godard and Gorin, the film ...

'' and ''

Tout va bien ''Tout va bien'' is a 1972 French-Italian political drama film directed by Jean-Luc Godard and collaborator Jean-Pierre Gorin and starring Jane Fonda and Yves Montand. The film's title means "everything is going well". It was released in the U ...

'' (''Everything's Fine''). Another film had been shot in Palestine before the group dissolved entitled ''Jusqu'à la victoire''. It was not completed after the film's subjects and members of the

Palestine Liberation Organization The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ar, منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية, ') is a Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist political and militant organization founded in 1964 with the initial purpose of establ ...

were killed shortly after the initial footage was taken.

later used the existing material as the basis for his 1976 film ''Ici et ailleurs'' (''Here and Elsewhere''). In the film, Godard and his wife, Anne-Marie Miéville, deconstruct his and Gorin's methods for making ''Jusqu'à la victoire'' and they in turn call into question the methods and the manifesto of the Dziga Vertov Group as a whole.

References

Jane de Almeida (org.)
Grupo Dziga Vertov/Dziga Vertov Group Book (São Paulo: witz edições, 2005).
Writings on the Dziga Vertov Group.Films of Dziga Vertov Group on 0xDB
Film production companies of France {{film-company-stub