While Dziga Vertov's Man With A Movie Camera reinvented the way films could be edited, a later Russian filmmaker by the name of Mikhail Kalatozov would take the way in which cameras can be wielded to new heights. In several sequences this statement can be taken literally: I Am Cuba's overview of life in Cuba begins with a tracking shot which seems to defy the impossible as it floats around the exterior of a hotel; later it drifts over a huge procession, weaving in and out of windows in stunningly crafted shots which wouldn't look out of place in Birdman. Four short, loosely told stories depict the various strata of Cuban society, with Kalatozov's direction a constant stream of inventive, wide angle tracking shots scrutinizing the characters. While I Am Cuba wasn't well received on its release, its discovery by Martin Scorsese led to a campaign for its restoration in the 1990s. Hardly surprising, given that Scorsese himself is the Hollywood master of the grandiose tracking shot.
