New Prints!
"His films reflect the beauty and the atrocities of this world, the poetics and the sorrow."-Kees Bakker
Joris Ivens (1898-1989) was one of the supreme practitioners of nonfiction cinema, noted for his fusion of visual poetry with deep political commitment; he was also perhaps the world's first truly international filmmaker. In a career spanning most of the twentieth century, Ivens blazed trails across five continents, documenting the human environment in China, Vietnam, Chile, Cuba, Mali, the Soviet Union, the United States, and other nations. Working in collaboration with such notables as Ernest Hemingway, Bertolt Brecht, Paul Robeson, Dmitri Shostakovich, Jacques Prévert, and Chris Marker, Ivens fostered a collective approach to filmmaking. His productions served as training ground for many important filmmakers, including Gillo Pontecorvo (The Battle of Algiers) and the Taviani brothers (Padre Padrone). Ivens even helped launch a national cinema: the camera he brought to China in 1938 for the filming of The 400 Million became a crucial tool in the development of the progressive film culture of that country.
Ivens's international reputation was established with the release of The Bridge in 1928; he remained active and influential into the 1980s. The director received scores of international prizes, including the World Peace Prize (1955), the Cannes Golden Palm (1957), the French Legion d'Honneur (1984), and the Venice Golden Lion (1988).
