In 2011-12 the Chinese Australian artist Shen Jiawei painted a large canvas Spain 1937 (220x300). It depicts a group portrait of eminent intellectuals and artists who participated in the Spanish Civil War, including Joris Ivens, George Orwell, Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Neruda and André Malraux.
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.
Every year IDFA's Guest of Honor compiles their Top 10 favorite films that inspired them. This year Czech filmmaker Helena Třeštíková will present her Top 10 in a public Filmmaker Talk. The films will also be screened during IDFA 2018. She selected among others Joris Ivens' La Seine a rencontré Paris (1957). Třeštíková explains why these films are important to her in this article.
On 18 September Marceline Loridan-Ivens (19 March 1928, Epinal) passed away in Paris. She was born in a family originating from Lodz (Poland), which emigrated to France due to anti-semitism. During her working career she was pollster, filmmaker, producer and writer. She was the fourth and last wife of Joris Ivens, whom she first met in 1963. The couple married officially in 1977. Her life was marked by wars.
On Monday May 28th the VietNam Film Institute presented a new documentary film about Ivens in VietNam at the occassion of a ceremony in Nijmegen celebrating 50 years of solidarity between Nijmegen and VietNam. Mrs. Ngo Thi Hoa, Ambassador of VietNam in The Hague, Mr. Hubert Bruls, mayor of Nijmegen, and activists from the 1960s and 70s supporting VietNam, attended this meeting. The theme 'Looking back for a better future' was illustrated with specialists presenting innovative technologies from Nijmegen in nowadays projects in Vietnam.
Chris Marker (1921-2012) is one of the finest examples of an essay-filmmaker. TheCinémathèque Française shows the exhibition ‘Chris Markers and the 7 Lives of a Cineaste’ (until 29 July) and an almost complete retrospective including the films to which he contributed as a friend and collaborator of Joris Ivens …à Valparaiso (commentary), Rotterdam Europort (commentary) and the collective film Loin de Vietnam (producer). Only Le ciel, la terre is lacking (commentary).
The International Documentary Festival in Paris, Cinéma du reel, celebrates its 40th anniversary with a retrospective ‘What is real? 40 years of thinking’. One of the films is Cinemafia. Rencontre 1. Jean Rouch parle avec Joris Ivens et Henri Storck shot on the beach of the Dutch village Katwijk in 1980. Also the competition for ‘Prix Joris Ivens’ (the Joris Ivens/Cnap Award of 7.500 euro) for first films will be presented.
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.
