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 of Ivens and Loridan-Ivens will testify about the production of the four war films made between 1963 and 1970 and its importance today. The motto of the Ivens seminar is: ‘Joris Ivens and the Vietnam War – Looking back in history for a better future’. This website offers information about this seminar: the program and schedule, abstracts of the lectures, information about scholars and signing up for people who are interested in attending the seminar at the Hanoi Trade Union Hotel.
Read more: International Joris Ivens Symposium in Hanoi 22-23 November
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.