David Abelevich Kaufman (Russian: Дави́д А́белевич Ка́уфман) (2 January 1896 – 12 February 1954) — better known by his pseudonym Dziga Vertov, or Vertof (Russian: Дзи́га Ве́ртов, "spinning top") — was a Soviet pioneer documentary film, newsreel director and cinema theorist. His filming practices and theories influenced the cinéma vérité style of documentary moviemaking and the Dziga Vertov Group, a radical filmmaking cooperative which was active in the 1960s. Vertov was born Denis Abelevich Kaufman (Russian: Давид А́белевич Кауфман) into a family of Jewish lineage in Białystok, Poland, then a part of the Russian Empire. His father was a librarian. He Russified his Jewish name David and patronymic Abelevich to Denis Arkadievich at some point after 1918.[2] Vertov studied music at Białystok Conservatory until his family fled from the invading German army to Moscow in 1915. The Kaufmans soon settled in Petrograd, where Vertov began writing poetry, science fiction and satire. In 1916-1917 Vertov was studying medicine at the Psychoneurological Institute in Saint Petersburg and experimenting with "sound collages" in his free time. He eventually adopted the name "Dziga Vertov", which translates loosely as 'spinning top'. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Dziga+Vertov">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.