Dziga and His Brothers

The fascinating and tumultuous lives of Mikhail, Boris, and Denis Kaufman - the last better known as revolutionary Soviet director Dziga Vertov - are the focus of this illuminating documentary. All visionary artists who pushed the stylistic boundaries of cinema in its formative years, the brothers constituted what may be the most dazzlingly innovative filmmaking family in cinema history, even as their lives were frequently beset by personal tragedy and political strife. Using rare archival footage from Russian state film archives and private collections, the film traces the brothers’ lives and art from Bialystok to Moscow, Paris and Hollywood. (Criterion)