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 ...

75 years ago, on 17 August 1945, Indonesia declared its independence as a nation. In support of the young republic Joris Ivens filmed in October and November 1945 the boycot actions of maritime workers (the Black Armada) from various nationalities in the harbour of Sydney: Indonesia Calling. On August 26th 2020 the Indonesian ambassador opened in the National Maritime Museum of Australia, situated on Sydney's waterfront, an on-line exhibition about the relationship between Australia, Indonesia and The Netherlands.

TwoNations

SS Moreton Bay was one of the vessels chartered by the Dutch government-in-exile that was affected by the waterside workers black bans. ANMM Collection

During the past three years the travelling exhibition Black Armada /Hiram Armada about the boycot actions of waterfront workers in Australia in support of the Republic of Indonesia was presented in seven cities such as Sydney, Yogyakarta, Djakarta, Surabaya, Makassar and Denpasar. Now the physical exhibition is over, the on-line exhibition of the National Maritime Museum of Australia keeps the story and personal testimonies alive, both in English and in bahasa Indonesia. See:
https://www.sea.museum/2015/08/17/black-armada/
and
https://www.sea.museum/whats-on/exhibitions/two-nations

The fact that the film pamphlet Indonesia Calling, made by Joris Ivens in October and November 1945, assisted by Marion Michelle and Katherin Duncan, wasn't banned in Australia had to do with the policy of prime-minster Chifley of the Labour party. While the Dutch government fooled the Australian government by using mercy-ships with munition to leave from Australian harbours and start a war in Indonesia, Chifley stood firm in defending the priciples of the Atlantic Charter. He was in favor of a policy in which a new balance in the region between Australia and the young republic could be based on good neighbourship.

Invitation of Joris Ivens to the World Premiere of Indonesia Calling. Joris Ivens Archives, European Foundation Joris Ivens.

From the initial actions of maritime workers who boycotted Dutch ships returning to re-colonise Indonesia after World War II, to Australia co-sponsoring the admission of Indonesia to the United Nations in 1950, the bonds between the two nations were both personal and political. This is also the story of Indonesians who came to Australia during World War II and met and married Australians. Indonesia Calling is not only a film about 'The ships that didn't sail', it is also a film about an Australian society in which people from various countries and with various religious and political backgrounds can live together in harmony. One of the characters of Indonesia Calling is the Chinese Arthur Gar Lock Chang, one of the activists supporting the boycot actions and demonstrations. His story is important to understand the context of the film and conflict and how world politics at large affected individual lives of people. See: https://www.sea.museum/2015/08/17/black-armada/arthur-gar-lock-chang-19212016

Arthur Gar Lock Chang during a rallye of waterfront workers as filmed by Joris Ivens in Indonesia Calling. Article Daily Telegraph, 29 September 1945

The online exhibition highlights the stories of a period where Indonesia’s first Prime Minister addressed Australians in a speech in 1945 saying ‘you are all my friends’. The exhibition contains historical images, videos and documents sourced from the Australian National Maritime Museum and other archives and collections, as well as personal accounts and research by historians.

Two Nations – A Friendship is Born will be a valuable, accessible and lasting online resource for all – both Indonesians and Australians – to understand an important period of shared histories.

SurveyIndependentMovementklein

Leaflet about the Indonesian National Movements, Joris Ivens Archoives/ European Foundation Joris Ivens, Nijmegen.

The Black Armada exhibition was first produced by the Australian National Maritime Museum in 2015 for the 70th anniversary of Indonesia’s declaration of independence in association with the Australia-Indonesia Institute of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Embassy of The Republic of Indonesia, Canberra.

Two Nations: A friendship is born was curated by Dr Stephen Gapps of the Australian National Maritime Museum with the assistance of Sulis Indiarto and Lydia Trotter from the Australian Embassy Jakarta, to highlight the 70th anniversary of Australian and Indonesian diplomatic relations in 2019.

Translations by Luhur Aryoko.

This online resource was launched on 26 August 2020 by Australia's Ambassador to Indonesia Gary Quinlan AO to help commemorate Indonesia's 75th year of independence.

Both exhibitions were curated by Dr Stephen Gapps of the Australian National Maritime Museum, with thanks to Museum Benteng Vredeburg, Australia Indonesia Association NSW, Indonesian Consulate General, Sydney, National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, the Music Archive of Monash University and individuals Margaret Kartomi, Jeffrey Mellefont, Resi Mushirah Kadir and Anthony Liem, Graeme Isaac and Bryn Evans.