20 Documentary Movies You Must See Before You Die

2. Man With A Movie Camera (1927)

Often misidentified as "the first documentary ever," Man With A Movie Camera might as well have been; it has the associated sense of awe that one might attribute to such a thing, as the titular "man" - that being director Dziga Vertov - and his camera take to the Soviet streets in a madcap attempt to capture absolutely everything and anything.

Indeed, the camera in this documentary is perhaps the most curious of its kind; there is no plan here, so to speak, but each image tells a story of its own. The level of detail visible in each and every shot is remarkable - then again, what else do you expect from real life?

Man With A Movie Camera is often hailed as a perfect work of documentary filmmaking, and watching this almost 100-year-old film it's easy to see why; in a way, Dziga Vertov's vision is incredibly pure, but there are cinematic embellishments that enhance the action (there are jump cuts, the use of spilt screens, among many others). His intention to merely capture "a day in the life of urban Russian" could not have been better met, however.