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 directors. The exhibition runs from 8 June till 15 September 2019.
Read more: Matera, European Capital of Culture, presents Ivens censored Italian film sequence
The 28th International Film Festival Innsbruck (Austria) presents an hommage to Joris Ivens commemorating his death thirty years ago, on 28th of June 1989. Three films will be shown between May 28th and June 2nd: The Spanish Earth, Loin de Vietnam and Lied der Ströme. This series is supported by the 'Zukunftsfonds der Republik Osterreich' and the University of Innsbruck.
On 22 and 23 November the International Joris Ivens Symposium in Hanoi brought together a wonderful mix of Vietnamese film veterans, who had collaborated with Joris Ivens and his wife in the 1960s and a group of film scholars from Canada, USA, Indonesia, Australia, France, China and The Netherlands.
Read more: Joris Ivens Symposium in Hanoi attracts much attention
The magnificient book of film historian Günter Jordan about Joris Ivens' East-German films, entitled 'Unknown Ivens' ('Unbekannter Ivens') will be presented on 25 November at the legendary UT Connewitz film theater in Leipzig. Next to the lecture by Jordan 'Joris Ivens at DEFA and in the GDR' the films Die Windrose (1958, The Rose Compass) and Rain (1929, Regen) will be shown.
Read more: Günter Jordan's 'Unknown Ivens' presentation in Leipzig
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.