I need to decide where to take my wife tonight on our “date” and I am presented with two great options, each one a treat and well worth attending.
1. Alternative culture festival with film and music and art – all in the Czech language.
2. A viewing of the early Russian avant-garde film “Man With a Movie Camera”, by Vertov, followed by a lecture on, presumably, the impact of Vertov on comtemporay culture. This will be hosted by Anagram Bookstore. And its all in English.
What will it be?
Number 2. Of course. Because when all is said and done, everyone likes to hang out with their homies. And my English-speaking x-pat, geeky intellectual homies are getting into Vertov tonight. And we will join them. This is a good example of my "Homies Unit Principle"
[My Homies Unit Principle finds some inheritance from C. Peter Wagner’s Homogenous Unit Principle, a church growth theory that proved controversial in a postmodern environment. Wagner was one of my teachers in Seminary.]
But back to Vertov. I have been reading of his contributions by new media theorist Lev Manovich, who claims that many of the computer-age tools and concepts can find their first usage in films like “Man With A Camera”. The “cut and paste” command, for example, is a new use of montage that Vertov pioneered.
I am sure the guy giving the lecture tonight (Keith Jones) will be expounded on this and Vertov’s concept of “Kino-eye” – the idea that the tools of technology and cinematography can be used to gain a new understanding of the world.
Having said that, maybe it will just be a really good movie and night out with my wife.
