Dziga Vertov (born David Abelevich Kaufman) was a Soviet pioneer documentary film and newsreel director, as well as a cinema theorist. His filming practices and theories influenced the cinéma vérité style of documentary movie-making and the Dziga Vertov Group, a radical film-making cooperative which was active from 1968 to 1972. The independent, exploratory style of Vertov influenced and inspired many filmmakers and directors. The Dziga Vertov Group borrowed his name.