THE GAMELAN DIGUL of INDONESIA CALLING

Anthony Liem wrote a text about the history of the Gamelan Digul, the first gamelan in Australia, which is an important historical object illustrating the fight for Indonesian independance against Dutch colonial rule. This gamelan is at display at the Monash University, Performing Arts Centre in Melbourne in the Margaret Kartomi Gallery.

Andries Deinum and a find of The Camera and I

After some 80 years after it was written by Ivens, a bound typoscript of his first autobiography The Camera and I, was found in Portland, Oregon, USA. Ella Thomas, who is for 32 years Director of Education for the Northwest Film Center, the Northwest region's largest and most comprehensive film arts organization, writes how she found it:

Oscar Winning '20 Days in Mariupol' (2023) and Ivens's '40 Days in Madrid' (1937)

When watching Mstyslav Chernov’s Oscar-winning film 20 Days in Mariupol, Alex Vernon, professor in English and specialist in 20th century war-literature, could not but see parallels with The Spanish Earth. This documentary by Joris Ivens, John Fernhout and Ernest Hemingway was the result of 40 days of film shooting in besieged Madrid in 1937. Both films draws on personal footage with an harrowing account of civilians caught in the siege, in 1936 a new kind of warfare.

European Film Academy honors Ivens and Liftbridge as Treasure of European Film Culture

The European Film Academy (EFA) honors Joris Ivens, The Bridge (1928) and the vertical-lift bridge in Rotterdam (Koningshaven Bridge) by including it as Treasures of European Film Culture. It is for the first time that a Dutch filmmaker and location is included in this growing list of in the meanwhile 49 European locations in 24 countries, which or of extreme importance for the European film culture. According to the EFA these places of historical value need to be maintained and protected not just now but also for generations to come.Famou ...

'Selling a Colonial War' proofs Dutch propaganda and censorship

After Joris Ivens made Indonesia Calling (1946) he was immedialtely accused of anti-Dutch propapaganda. Officers of the Secret Service also immediately proposed to withdraw Ivens'passport. Not in 1951, but already in 1945. In a new documentary Selling a Colonial War filmmaker In-Soo Radstake casts a broad view of perpectives, among others a remarkable view of former Dutch minister of foreign affairs Ben Bot. He confirms that it was the Dutch government itself which used pure propaganda, censorship and concealing language to disinform or not inf ...

Absurd spy thriller about Ivens and Van Dongen is indeed absurd

The Second Stage production of Spain in the Tony Kiser Theater in New York presented in December '23 a play about The Spanish Earth with Joris Ivens, Helen van Dongen, Ernest Hemingway and John Dos Passos as the protagonists. Jen Silverman writes that Spain is not “a history play in the most conventional meaning.” It’s “set in 1936 in the West Village,” she says, then adds, “Sort of.” "This 90-minute comedy-drama is an absurdist-tinged fantasy that seizes a moment of history and bends it to the breaking point", she continues. And ...

A performance of Rain at a Climate Change programme

During a concert at the 'Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy' University of Music and Theater in Leipzig the subject of Climate Change was íllustrated' by Ivens' film Rain/Regen (1929) accompanying Hanns Eisler’s "14 Arten den Regen zu beschreiben" (*Fourteen Ways to Describe Rain). In a packed great concert hall this magnificent performance became a marvellous highlight of the night. The musicians played with energy, joy and much competence. Hanns Eislers and Joris Ivens art works were much appreciated by the audience and critics as well.The initia ...

A Gift of Ivens films

Recently the Ivens Foundation received six reels of a working copy of The 17th Parallel (1968). Laurence Lefèvre gave these reels to André Stufkens in her place in Montreuil. She got this working copy from her sister, the late Liliane Korb, who passed away in 2022. At the age of 26 Liliane Korb edited this long documentary about the peoples war and fight for independence of the Vietnamese people against the US occupation. Previously the Ivens Foundation also received an old print of Borinage from the Limburg Museum. Liliane Korb Lilia ...

How an Ivens film helps to reconstruct cultural heritage in Valparaiso

In 1963 Joris Ivens made, together with students from the university in Santiago de Chile, a poetic film mosaic of the Chilean harbour city Valparaiso, called …à Valparaiso. This film is part of the cultural heritage of this city, in 2003 elected UNESCO World heritage. Amanda Panizza Hevia published a plan to reconstruct the Casa de Los Siete Espejos (‘The House with Seven Mirrors’) as part of a new department of the regional archives of Valparaiso. ...

Women and the Far East in The 400 Million

During the Hanns Eisler Discourse at Humboldt University in Berlin on 5 and 6 November Japanese scholar Chiharu Wada (Meiji-Gakuin University, Tokyo) will lecture about Women and the Far East in the documentary The 400 Million (USA, 1939). Joris Ivens' documentary The 400 Million deliberately presents a "new" image of China, where women and men study together, "as in America". It is Ivens' perspective for a modern Chinese society in which women are equal to men, although this representation did not really matched reality in society i ...

Looking for my father in an Ivens film

Recently a citizen from Montpellier travelled 1200 kilometres to visit the Joris Ivens Archives in order to find his biological father. There are many reasons why people around the world consult the Ivens collection, but this is a very special and personal one. He wanted to look for his father, which he has never known and met, in Ivens’ documentary Peace Will Win (1951)

Ivens Meets China

After years of preparations and research, professor Zhang Tongdao (University of Beijing) and Dutch filmmaker René Seegers finalized their four-part television series about Joris Ivens. In each part of 50 minutes one of Ivens’s Chinese films is key: 1- The 400 Million (1938); 2- Before Spring (1958); 3- How Yukong Moved the Mountains (1976) and 4- A Tale of the Wind (1988).

Picasso Shared and Divided: The Artist and His Image in East and West Germany

In 1951 Joris Ivens met Pablo Picasso during a visit to his atelier in Vaucluses. Marion Michelle made a series of photos of them, together with poet Jacques Prévert, which are on display at the exhibition about 'Picasso: Shared and Divided' in Museum Ludwig, Cologne (25 September 2021-30 January 2022). After the Second World War Picasso was 'a hero of the left' and used in this way. His dove, symbol for world peace, became a tool for propaganda in the Eastern Bloc. What do we associate with Pablo Picasso today? A ...

Project of a Book on the History of FIAF

FIAF, in partnership with the Jan de Vaal Fund, invites film historians to submit proposals for thematic chapters as part of a forthcoming book on the 82-year history of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF), both as an institution and as a coherent global community with its shared values, cultural missions, professional practices, scientific methods, and collaborative projects. The European Foundation Joris Ivens is an associate of FIAF since 2002 and André Stufkens is participating as co-editor of the book, together with Chris ...

On 22 and 23 November the International Joris Ivens Symposium in Hanoi brought together a wonderful mix of Vietnamese film veterans, who had collaborated with Joris Ivens and his wife in the 1960s and a group of film scholars from Canada, USA, Indonesia, Australia, France, China and The Netherlands.

The atmosphere completely fitted the 'combative and tender' character which Joris Ivens noticed when he entered Vietnam in 1965. This spirit resulted in much press attention in newspapers and the national TV channels and inspired others to create new plans and projects about Ivens. The Symposium, organized by the Vietnam Film Institute in conjunction with the European Foundation Joris Ivens, started with the screening of the documentary Joris Ivens and Vietnam, made by the VFI. The inaugural session was opened by director Mr. Hung of the Vietnam Film Institute. The new Vice-minister of Culture of Vietnam attended this inaugural session as well as the Dutch Ambassador Mrs. Elsbeth Akkerman, who spoke about the importance of Ivens' filmwork. During the two days the passionate and emotional testimonies of the Vietnamese filmmakers war veterans were the most impressive. Feature film director and peoples artist Mr. Bui Dinh Hac told stories about the dangerous situations in which The 17th Parallel was made and the courage of the cameramen. Ms. Xuan Phuong, Ivens' personal assistance, told with her vivid memory anecdotes about Ivens and the impact Ivens had on herself as well as the campaigns to support the Vietnamese in their struggle for independence. Well known film director Dang Nhat Minh explained why Ivens' direct film style influenced him and others in Vietnam. Mr. Nguyen Nhu Vu, director of the documentary film studio, where Ivens worked at the time, had a scoop about the discovery in Paris of the most important film footage of the declaration of independence on 2 September 1945 by Ho Chi Minh, in which Ivens played a role. Film director, Mr. Pham Viet Tung, explained why the gift by Ivens of two film cameras supported the creation of the Vietnamese documentary film industry. Mr. To Hoang told in detail about the military circumstances in which Ivens made his film in Vinh Linh. Mr. Pham Hong Thang gave an overview of the history of Vietnamese documentary.

The diversity of subjects on which the international film scholars lectured, proofed again the scope of Ivens'film oeuvre both geographical as well as historical and artistic. The Komintern as an quintessential commissioner of a world style in documentary film classics on a world scale (Jane Gaines), the unfinsihed decolonisation of Indonesia (Ariel Heryanto), the relationship between the Western and Chinese Avant-garde (Luo Liang), the influence of Indonesia Calling in Australia (John Hughes), the interelationships between politcis and poetry in Ivens'film oeuvre (André Stufkens), the evolvement of solidarity between the Netherlands and Vietnam, starting with Ivens films (Ad Spijkers), and the role of gender, genre and technology in Ivens' Indochina chapter (Thomas Waugh).

Next to lectures the new documentary film Marceline. A Woman. A Century by film dircetor Cordelia Dvorak, was shown.

The VFI published a catalogue on Ivens, a booklet about the symposium and the book Joris Ivens and Vietnam. The sympsoium was covered by the national TV Channels in their news bulletins, in the TV Programme Culture Mosiac and the popular talkshow Talk Vietnam with millions of spectators.

A special thanks to Mrs. Hoang Mai (International department of the Vietnam Film Instute), Mr. Ad (Adrian) Spijkers (advisor of the Ivens Foundation and the MCNV) and his wife Loc Nhan (Nhan Loc Bui) who started this collaboration in March 2016 and spent much time, expertise and energy in the success of this partnership.

The item on Ivens of the TV programme Culture Mosaic:
https://youtu.be/yi4psTCMtNA?t=1367

A group photo of Vietnamese film war veterans and lecturers mrs. Xuan Phong, Mr. Duc, Mr. Pham Viet Tung, former Vietnamese ambassadors in The Netherlands,
filmscholars Luo Liang, Jane Gaines, Thomas Waugh, Ariel and Surjanti Heryanto, John and Caroline Hughes, director of the Vietnam Film Institute Mr. Vu Nguyen Hung, former director of the Vietnam
Film Institute and chair prof. Tran Luan Kim, film director and Peoples Artist Dang Nhat Minh, director of the National Documentary and Scientific Film Studio and Peolples Artist Mr. Nguyen Nhu Vu,
filmmakers Nguyen Van Vinh and Nguyen Van Nhan, Mr. Pham Hong Thang, head of script department (NDaSFS), cultura attaché of the French Embassy Frédéric Alliod, Mr. Anthony Liem, historian in Sydney (initiator of Black Armada),
film students of the Theater and Film Academy in Hanoi, keynote speaker Ad Spijkers and his wife Nhan Loc Bui, who together with mrs. Hoang Mai contributed enormously to the success of this symposium, and Harko Wubs, filmmaker and André Stufkens from the European Foundation Joris Ivens.

Mrs. Elsbeth Akkerman, ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, during her speech of the inaugural session of the symposium.

The conference room.

Next to the Vice-minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism in the middle sits the head of the International cooperation department, mrs. Nguyen Phuong Hoa and mr. Vu Nguyen Hung,
director of the Vietnam Film Institute.

A group photo of several film veterans like mrs. Xuan Phong and mr. Phan Viet Tung, filmscholars like Jane Gaines, Thomas Waugh, Luo Liang, former director of the Vietnam
Film Institute and chair prof. Tran Luan Kim, film students, keynote speaker Ad Spijkers and filmmakers like mr. Nguyen Van Vinh.

Prof. Ariel Heryanto of Monash University (Melbourne, Australia) speaking about the unfinished decolonisation of Indonesia.

The conference room.

Chair and former director of the Vietnam Film Institute prof. Tran Luan Kim.   Prof. Thomas Waugh, writer of the award winning book The Conscience of Cinema. The Works of Joris Ivens.

Mr. Anthony Liem from Sydney, speaking about Ivens'film Indonesia Calling.      André Stufkens, speaking about art & politics.

Famous film director and Peoples Artist Dang Nhat Minh (left) and Mr. Ad Spijkers, speaking about 50 years of solidarity between The Netherlands and Vietnam.
the director of the National Documentary and Scientific Film Studio and Peolples Artist Mr. Nguyen Nhu Vu,

Filmmaker Harko Wubs (European Foundation Joris Ivens) filming Mr. Duc, who appeared in The 17th Parallel and tells about the underground tunnel in Vinh Linh
where Joris Ivens and his wife Marceline Loridan-Ivens stayed for five weeks in June/July 1967

Group photo at the Hien Luong Bridge, the border between North- and South Vietnam during the American War. This bridge in the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone, which was in fact the most devastated and bombed area), can be seen in the opening sequence of Ivens' The 17th Parallel as well as the flag at the background.