"Later I met Eisenstein again, he was the same age as I. We were a club of 1898: Bertolt Brecht, Hanns Eisler, myself, Zhou Enlai ... it is as wine, it was a good year! And a very interesting generation, which has run through a whole century."
Joris Ivens in Cin?matographe, 1982
On the 18th of November the second son of Cees Ivens and Dora Muskens-Ivens was born in the Van Berchenstraat: George Henri Anton Ivens. He grew up in a liberal bourgeois environment with ample opportunities for adventure and play. His grandfather, from the neighbour hood of Cologne was one of the first city photographers and his father established one of the first chain of photo shops, so that Joris came into touch with photo and film images at a very young age. Modern technology, progress, citizenship and art were the themes in the parental home. Besides from childhood on Joris saw parcels being prepared for the Dutch East Indies and he became inspired by 'flying'. Already soon he was to experience the world as a unity and travel every continent to make films. Apart from this world unity he also became touched by the dramatic contrasts and conflicts of his day, and the resistance against them shortly after the Great War. In fact three emancipatory movements come together in Joris Ivens: that of the German immigrants into Holland and especially in Nijmegen, where German entrepre neurs very soon put their mark on the economic and cultural life; the emancipation of the Catholic part of the population, which was particularly pronounced in Nijmegen; and the emancipation of the workers' movement, with which Ivens, first in Berlin and later in other parts of the world, was confronted. He belonged to that vast generation of artists, who both artistically and politically resisted the genaration of their parents and predecessors of before the Great War. Mostly coming from middle class environments they broke radically with 'old forms and thoughts' and took an active part in artistic and political avant-garde.
In this way did Joris Ivens become the pioneer of avant-garde film making in the Netherlands, the first film maker who made an international reputation name and laid the foundation of the Dutch Documentary School. Bert Haanstra, who died recently, stated about this: "As a film maker he did pioneering work. In the beginning of his career Ivens influenced many people, including me, with documentaries such as The Bridge. He was the one who introduced poetry in the documentary. In this he was far ahead of his time".
Internationally he belongs to the founding fathers of the documentary film together with Flaherty, Vertov and Grierson. In 'The Film Encyclopedia', the bible of the film world Ephraim Katz therefore writes: "Although his reputation in the west has suffered as a result of his self-limiting political commitments, Ivens is still regarded as the most important documentarist of his period".
The French documentarist Chris Marker tries to explain Ivens' strong points as follows: "In his style of editing he derived much from the principles of the Russian film makers, at the same time it demonstrates an impressionist lyricism, which remains unsurpassed with his orientation towards movement and continuity. His sound films often use the dialectic relation between sound and picture, and several times he cooperated with famous writers. Ivens? exceptional career has been so fruitful that it can only be approached: he was teacher, political activist and visual artist and also a prize winning documentarist. He continued filming till his death at the age of 90".
The celebration of the centenary of Joris Ivens has been prepared in many countries around the world.
A new genaration, having grown up with a completely different visual culture, will be confronted with these documentary classics of the 20th century. How will they appreciate this, what will make a lasting impression of Ivens' artistic heritage?
As motto for this filmic
experience may serve a statement by Ivens himself:
"Every viewer must do his own editing".