Philips Radio, ...A Valparaiso, Eisenstein's Visit to Holland, Le Jardin du Luxembourg and La Seine a rencontre Paris Joris Ivens' career spanned more than sixty years and includes films made in every inhabited continent on the globe. His poetic documentaries are united by the common threads of lyric optimism and political reflection on men and women moving through the turbulent history of this century. With Philips Radio, Ivens takes on the tyrannical organization of labor, as well as the clichés of the industrial film. Though hired by Philips, Ivens rejected the notion of the sponsored film, concentrating instead on the actual conditions in a modern factory. "In strong and striking images, with a determined rhythm, (the film) raises the spectre of the physical and moral ruin which threatens those workers who are the victims of capitalist rationalization..." (Leon Moussinac). In ...A Valparaiso, the Chilean port is depicted as a precipitious town in ceaseless bustle, with poverty clinging to the steep hills while prosperity gathers below. Chris Marker wrote one of his finest commentaries for this beautifully executed work. La Seine... exhibits an economy of style that intensifies the sparse, lyrical images. The "narration" is a sinuous poem written by Jacques Prévert for the film. Eisenstein's Visit to Holland captures the Russian film director in the Netherlands for the 1930 premiere of The General Line (a.k.a. The Old and the New, screening at PFA in October). Mannus Franken, an early collaborator of Ivens, in his film essay Le Jardin du Luxembourg finds purpose, symbol and irony in the simple configurations of birds, children and statues.