When touring in Latin-America a Dutch couple went to a campingside in Argentina, where they met a Roma family, called Lavarovich. Once this family noticed their neighbours were Dutch they started talking about their family history: a long time ago, a wellknown filmmaker from The Netherlands made a film about them! This was at the time they were part of the small circus of Todorovich in Chili. Indeed fifty years ago, in 1963, Joris Ivens filmed 'the smallest circus' in the world in Valparaiso. He called this short film Le petit chapiteau. Excerpts of this short film were included in ...à Valparaiso. The grandmother, now 82 years old, remembered Ivens and she even could show small excerpts from this film! It is a small world after all.
A historical photo of the Todorovich family circus.
The Todorovich family originates from Rumania. Around 1900 they started travelling around France, England and Spain, before they emigrated to Latin-America. Also there they wandered around various countries before they went to Chile.
In autumn 1962 Joris Ivens, on the invitation of Salvador Allende, started filming in Valparaiso with a crew of film students of the University of Santiago de Chile. This film was filmed as a mosaic of ensembles, themes and subjects. The circus act attracted a lot of emotions of the audience, which were filmed by Ivens. The film ...à Valparaiso received awards from the filmfestival of Oberhausen and Bergamo.
The new IVENS magazine is out now. Including articles with and about Paoli Taviani, Leonard Retel Helmrich, new revealing and the discovery of new photos made by Ivens as a child. You can download the magazine here.
Rithy Panh at IDFA. Photo IDFA
At the request of 26th IDFA Cambodian director Rithy Panh (1964, Phnom Penh) compiled his personal Top 10 of documentary films. The films of his Top 10 are screened during the festival, accompanied by a Retrospective of the filmmaker`s own work. In his Top 10 Rithy Panh selected two films of Joris Ivens/ Marceline Loridan-Ivens, which will be screened on Sunday 24th and Monday 25th at EYE and Tuschinski.
Read more: IDFA Top 10: Rithy Panh selected two films of Ivens/Loridan-Ivens
Catalogus Modernités plurielles 1905/1970: Tatlin, Malewich, Ivens, Pevsner en Huszar.
‘Multiple Modernities’ 1905-1970 is the name of the new permanent presentation of the collection of Centre Pompidou, the National Museum of Modern Art in Paris. It completely renews the museum`s traditional presentation, focusing on a more open, wide ranging approach to art in the modern period. All continents are covered in this selection of over 1,000 works by nearly 400 artists, making for a more balanced representation of the various regions in the world, and a wider overview of this period of art. Ivens’ Philips radio (1929) is on show in the part called ‘Construct Revolution’. Next to tatlin, Malewich. Pevsner and Huszar.
The Centre Pompidou in Paris is paying tribute to filmmaker Chris Marker from 16 October until 16 December. Not only through his films, but also by exploring the path of his inspirations, friendships and encounters.. Chris Marker collaborated with his friend Joris Ivens for various projects: …a Valparaiso, Rotterdam Europort, Le ciel, la terre and Loin de Vietnam. On 23 november the restored version of Loin de Vietnam (Far from Vietnam, 1967) will be shown.
Exhibition room with avant-garde films at the MMKA, Arnhem
From 20 October 2013 to 23 February 2014, the Museum voor Moderne Kunst Arnhem (MMKA) exhibits The Melancholic Metropolis: Cityscapes between Magic and Realism, 1925-1950. Magic realist painting is displayed alongside photography and film of the same era that visualizes the metropolis as a place of stillness, loneliness, and melancholy. Ivens’s film Rain is on exhibit permanently, alongside other avant-garde films. Also photos of Germaine Krull, Ivens’wife at that time, who inspired him to film cranes and bridges, are presented.
The Cultural Studentcentre of the University and high-school of Amsterdam CREA has started a course `Dutch masters in documentary history`. Besides Bert Haanstra and Johan van der Keuken, Joris Ivens will be discussed in detail as well.
The dutch masters of documentary film have placed the Netherlands on the world map since the fifties. Since then the Netherlands is well known for its documentary tradition. They had also a big influence on the development of documentary in the Netherlands. This was sooner recognized abroad than in their homeland.
In the course they examinate the influence of these Dutch masters on Dutch documentaryfilm. Besides viewing and discussing the works of the makers, there will be also a focus on the context and the background of the filmmakers, The course takes six weeks and will continue if there are enough participants.
For more infomation take a look at the website of CREA.
Hanns Eisler made the music for 'Komsomol', among other Ivens films.
Because of the passing of the famous composer Hanns Eisler 50 years ago, the film "Regen" of Joris Ivens will be screened on 3rd October 2012 at Centraltheater Leipzig as part of the event: "Eisler I Sohn ohne Stadt- eine musikalisch-szenische Revue zum 50. Todestag von Hanns Eisler". There were ‘Hans Eissler days’ organized in Berlin ass wel. Here they also showed two films of Ivens;‘Heldenlied (Pesn o gerojach) and ‘Regen’ because Eisler composed music for these films.
Read more: Hans Eisler passed away 50 years ago: Filmprogram in Berlin and Leipzig
