MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA was required viewing in film school. Release in 1929 in the Soviet Union, director Dziga Vertov paints a portrait of rapidly changing Soviet cities and citizens during the first decades of the twentieth century. This all occurs through the eyes of a cameraman, as the audience sees him document Soviet life, commerce, and society. Taking place over the course of a day, the film is an experimental impression of a particular place at a period of time characterized by extensive industrialization. One of the many legacies of this film, the one I find most interesting, is the establishment of the documentary filmmaker as an eyewitness, a recorder of what will one day be important history.