In Memoriam Ralf Schenk 1956-2022

On 17 August 2022 the former chairperson of the DEFA Foundation Ralf Schenk passed away in Berlin. He was a member of the board of the European Joris Ivens Foundation from 2012 to 2015. After a study in journalism at the Karl Marx University in Leipzig he proved himself quickly as a very erudite filmjournalist, among other through his contributions to the important East-German periodical Film und Fernsehen. After the fall of the Wall he broadened his scope to book publications on the history of DEFA, television programmes, interviews with veter ...

Exhibition on Ivens in Quang Tri: Destination of Memories

On Monday July 25th the Vietnamese Minister of Culture and Tourism, Mr.Nguyen Van Hung, opened an exhibition in the Quang Tri Mine Action Centre (QTMAC) and Restoring the Environment and Neutralizing the effects of the War (RENEW). about Joris Ivens and the Medical Committee The Netherlands-Vietnam (MCNV). The Ivens Foundation in close collaboration with the Vietnam Film Institute created the panels about the relationship of Joris Ivens and Marceline Loridan-Ivens with Vietnam between 1965 and 1970. Their support of the liberation struggle ...

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)

When Merdeka Came to Australia

The Indonesian Diaspora Network Victoria is organizing an exhibition in the Immigration Museum in Melbourne about the international solidarity movement in Australia after the Proclamation of Indonesia's Independence, that united the communities of Indonesians, together with the local Australians, Indians and Chinese that we should celebrate. One of the activities during the weekend of 27-29th of May is the film screening of Indonesia Calling (1946) directed by Joris Ivens, which explores the refusal of seamen and w ...

Joris Ivens and Dutch Light

Why The Netherlands has so may outstanding painters and documentary filmmakers? German film historian Thomas Tode attempts – following previous authors - to provide an answer in a recent article. According to Tode it was Joris Ivens who was leading the way in depicting the elements of nature, like the famous Dutch Light, the wind or water in all its guises: rivers, rain and clouds.

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 of Indonesian Independence: On-line exhibition Black Armada

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. ...

Ceremony Order of Friendship Joris Ivens

On Thursday 16th of January H.E. Mrs. Ngo Thi Hoa, Ambassador of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, conferred the Order of Friendship posthumously to Joris Ivens. Mrs. Annemiek Nooteboom received the Friendship Medal on behalf of the Ivens-family. She gave the medal and certificate to the European Foundation Joris Ivens to keep and treasure it forever in the archives.

Visit delegation of Quang Tri province to Nijmegen

On 30 and 31 October a delegation from Quang Tri province (central Vietnam) visited the city of Nijmegen, at the invitation of the municipality of Nijmegen, The Economic Board and the European Foundation Joris Ivens. Ms. Ngo Thi Hoa, ambassador of Vietnam in The Hague, attended the meetings. In Quang Tri the Ben Hai River is situated on the 17th parallel, where Joris Ivens and Marceline Loridan-Ivens in 1967 shot the long documentary Le 17e parallele. The delegation was headed by mr. Hoang Nam, the vice-president of the Peoples Committee of ...

Matera, European Capital of Culture, presents Ivens censored Italian film sequence

Matera in the Italian region of Basilicata is this year’s European Capital of Culture. The exhibition ‘Visione Unica’ of the design group Formafantasma includes Joris Ivens’ documentary l’ Italia Non è un Paese Povero (1960) as part of a visual archive about the very rich patrimony of this region. The last decades Matera shows a remarkable switch from poor and subordinated region towards a spectacular cultural pinnacle, praised by UNESCO, the World Monuments Fund and used by many famous film directo ...

Premiere 'Marceline. A Woman. A Century'.

On 16 November at IDFA Amsterdam the documentary Marceline. A Woman. A Century made by German director Cordelia Dvorak will be premiered. This portrait of the strong-minded filmmaker Marceline Loridan-Ivens (1928-2018) and fourth wife of Joris Ivens, saw its final editing two days before she passed away. In this film we see Marceline serving her guests coffee or vodka in her Paris apartment at the rue des Saints Peres.

International Joris Ivens Symposium in Hanoi 22-23 November

At the occasion of the 120th birthday of Joris Ivens and the 50th anniversary of the debut of the film The 17th Parallel, The People’s War (Joris Ivens and Marceline Loridan-Ivens, 1968) the VietNam Film Institute in collaboration with the European Foundation Joris Ivens are organizing an international Ivens-seminar in Hanoi on 22-24 November. Renowned (film) scholars from Vietnam, Canada, USA, Australia, Indonesia, China and The Netherlands will provide an impulse to the Ivens Studies around the world. Former Vietnamese collaborators ...

short biography

1898  George Henri Anton Ivens was born 18 November at the Van Berchenstraat in Nijmegen. He was the second son of photographic equipment dealer Cees Ivens and his wife Dora Muskens
1911 Made a juvenile film about Indians and a farmer`s family, titled De Wigwam, taken at Heideparkseweg and Kwakkenberg in Nijmegen
1911-`17  Pupil of the municipal Dutch High School at Kronenburgsingel in Nijmegen
1917-`19 Training as officer mounted field artillery
1919-`21 Studies economy at Higher Commercial College in Rotterdam, becomes student president
1921-`24  Studies photographic technique in Berlin, apprenticeship in several photographic laboratories, befriends Dutch poet Hendrik Marsman
1924-`33 Works in the Amsterdam branch of the CAPI-photo shop of his father`s; private filming of Ivens family at Sun- en Moonhouse
1927 Co-founder of FILM LIGA, begins taking first film experiments
1928 His short film De Brug (The Brigde) made Joris Ivens the pioneer of Dutch film art and attracts international attention
1928-`31 Makes form and movement studies such as Rain and the first artistic sound film of Holland: Philips Radio (Industrial Symphony)
1932-`34 Makes controversial social films at time of depression such asNieuwe Gronden (New Earth, about impoldering the Zuiderzee) andBorinage, after which he leaves Holland and goes to Russia
1936-`45 Settles in the U.S.A. and makes anti-fascist films such as Spanish Earth in Spain together with Ernest Hemingway and the The 400 Million in China;
collaborates in Canada and U.S.A. (a.o. for the USA War Department) in films about the war against Japan and Germany
1946 Resigns as film-commissioner in Indonesia for the Dutch government, in solidarity with the new-born Indonesian Republic and makes Indonesia Calling, a film pro Indonesian independance. Because of these events the Dutch government declares him `persona non grata`
1947-`57 Stays in Eastern Europe, forced because his Dutch passport has been confiscated, and makes some trade union films such as Lied der Ströme (Song of the Rivers) in colaboration with a.o. Brecht and Sjostakovic
1955 Is awarded the World Peace Prize
1957 Settles in Paris and wins a Golden Palm in Cannes and the Golden Gate Award in San Francisco with La Seine a rencontre Paris
1957-`65 Films in France, China, Italy, Cuba, Mali, and Chile the recovery of land, but also makes lyrical films such as Pour le Mistral and ...A Valparaiso
1964 First festive reception in Amsterdam in favour of a careful restoration of the split with his fatherland
1967 Is awarded the International Lenin Prize for Science and Culture in Moscow
1969 Dutch Minister Klomp assigns the making of a film about Holland to Ivens
1965-`70 Devotes himself to the liberation of Vietnam and makes several films against the American war of aggression
1971-`77 Large film project about the cultural revolution, shown at the basis of Chinese society How Yu Kong Moved the Mountains. This film is shown in many countries a.o. on Dutch television, and is bought by MoMA (Museum of Modern Art, New York)
1978 Is awarded an honorary doctorate of the Royal College of Art in London
1980-`88 Large film project about the history of Florence (not realised) and in China about the wind Une Histoire de Vent
1984 Is made Commander of the "Legion d`Honeur", presented by president Mitterand
1985 Is awarded the Golden Calf - Dutch Film Prize", presented by minister Brinkman; is made Grand Officer of the Republic of Italy and is presented with the golden medal "For merits for the Beautiful Arts" by the Spanish king Juan Carlos
1987 Is awarded the Che Guevarra Prize in Cuba
1988 Is awarded the "Golden Lion" for his complete oeuvre at the Venice Fim Festival; is made honorary citizen of Nijmegen
1989 Is decorated with a Knighthood in the Order of the Dutch Lion; dies in Paris on June 28