Film Studies Center to present Man with a Movie CameraJan. 18 in an authentic exhibition

Producer Dziga Vertov’s original sound version of Chelovek’s Kinoapparatom (Man with a Movie Camera) is no longer a piece of lost film history.

During the mid-1990s, Yuri Tsivian, Professor in Art History and Slavic Languages & Literatures, published the notes of the 1929 Russian classic’s musical accompaniment that had been lost among Vertov’s personal papers for years. Vertov himself wrote these accompaniment notes.

On Monday, Jan. 18, Dennis James and his ensemble, Filmharmonia, will provide live accompaniment to the film, using an authentic score derived from Vertov’s notes and the original Soviet cue sheets.

The University’s Film Studies Center and Doc Films will present the authentic screening of the Russian classic at 8 p.m. Monday, Jan. 18, in Max Palevsky Cinema at Ida Noyes Hall.

“This screening will be perhaps the most authentic presentation of Man with a Movie Camera since its initial exhibition,” said Ross Lipman, Assistant Director and Curator of the Film Studies Center.

The experimental documentary, which presents glimpses of everyday life in the Soviet Union and the often uneven adjustment to its new social order, was designed to be shown with brief pauses between each film reel. Man with a Movie Camera is more easily understood when the film is shown with its intended pauses, Lipman said. One reel corresponds to one episode. The film has not been seen this way since the 1930s, said Lipman.

Tsivian, whose find is considered a major achievement in film scholarship, will introduce the film.

Ida Noyes Hall is at 1212 E. 59th St. General admission is $9. For recorded information, call (773) 702-8575. For answers to other questions, call the Film Studies Center at (773) 702-1118.

In addition, James also will perform Jan. 16 at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel’s showing of Paul Wegener’s Der Golem.

The screening will begin at 8 p.m. The chapel is at 5850 S. Woodlawn Ave. For more information, contact Lorraine Brochu at (773) 702-7059.