Doc Lisboa Film Festival presents 'A Family, a Woman'

The international documentary filmfestival in Lisbon, 'Doc Lisboa', presents a special programme on labour, called 'A Body of Work'. A rather neglected subject in mainstream cinema, because film was exactly ment to escape from the factory, from watching the world of labour and of workers. As part of this programme from 22 October to 3 November the film A Family, a Woman (1976) by Joris Ivens and Marceline Loridan-Ivens is on-line available.

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 Austra ...

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 C ...

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 ...

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 co ...

New DVD with Ivensfilms for DEFA released

The DEFA Foundation in Berlin released a new German DVD with Ivens-films in conjunction with the book Günter Jordan published about these films. DEFA already had launched a DVD with Song of the Rivers in and now presents The Wind Rose, Friendship Will Win and The Peace Cycle Tour Warsaw-Berlin-Prague 1952.

Impressive new book ‘Unknown Ivens’ by Günter Jordan published

The long awaited book (in German) about Ivens and his East-German films, written by thé specialist in this field, Günter Jordan, has been published by the DEFA Foundation. This beautiful book describes in 680 pages the triumph in the 1950’s, the condemnation at the end of the 1960’s when Ivens became persona non grata in the GDR, until the resurrection of Ivens’ DEFA-films.

Lecture Prof. Heryanto on Indonesia Calling

Prof. Ariel Heryanto from Monash University in Melbourne lectured about Joris Ivens and Indonesia Calling in Djakarta. In his vivid presentation in Bahasa Indonesia (also a version with English subtitles is available) he discussed the tensed relationships between Indonesia, Australia and The Netherlands both back then and now. The opening sequence of Ivens' film showing an Australian society with diversity could be a model for their relationships. Since 22 October, when this film made by Jakarticus, was put on-line then thous ...

Poll Greatest Documentaries Ever: 11 Ivens' films

What are the greatest documentaries ever made? The international film magazine Sight&Sound publishes in the September issue 2014 a poll of 340 critics and filmmakers in the search for authoritative answers. In this list a remarkable number of 11 Ivens’films were voted.

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