GRAPHIC DESIGN: Susan B. Glattstein
PHOTO CREDITS 1: 1937©Hans Wegner Collection; 2: PHILIPS RADIO, 1931©Joris Ivens Archives/EFJI; 3: BORINAGE, 1933 ©Joris Ivens Archives/EFJI; 4: A TALE OF THE WIND, 1988©CAPI Films/Marceline Loridan; 5: SONG OF THE RIVERS, 1954©Joris Ivens Archives/EFJI; 6: THE MISTRAL, 1965©Léon Herschritt, Joris Ivens Archives/EFJI
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Ivens’ international reputation was established with the release of THE BRIDGE in 1928. Over the next several decades, he became one of the most widely traveled film directors, working in places as diverse as Eastern Europe, Cuba, China, Mali, and Chile. Ivens received scores of international prizes, including the World Peace Prize (1955), Cannes Golden Palm (1957), Venice Golden Lion (1988) and the French Legion d’Honneur (1984).
Yet when Joris Ivens landed in New York on February 18, 1936, he was so broke he had to borrow $250 to pass American immigration. With only one suit and one pair of shoes he set foot in the New World. Later, he wrote:
“…What I don’t know is that this interlude is going to take quite some time longer than I could think when I disembarked. I’ll stay there for nine years. In these nine years I’ll make THE SPANISH EARTH, THE 400 MILLION (China), POWER AND THE LAND and collaborate on a lot of other films. The Second World War will break out, I’ll go to China, to Hollywood, and–the beginning of a next stage–Indonesia. My stay in the United States is more important than people generally assume.”
EUROPEAN FOUNDATION JORIS IVENS
EFJI was founded in 1990 by Marceline Loridan-Ivens and is established in Ivens’ birthplace of Nijmegen, Netherlands, to maintain the reputation and promote the life and work of Joris Ivens. Activities include managing the Joris Ivens Archives to be accessible to an international public, creating retrospectives, publications, exhibitions, and promoting the art of documentary films made from a humanitarian point of view. For more information visit EFJI at www.ivens.nl
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