1October 2010 | 16

Nr 16 | October 2010 European Foundation Joris Ivens

THE

MAGAZINE

3 JorisIvensAward Cinémaduréel

5 FromShanghaiwithLoveWorldExpoShanghai

14 JorisIvensasIknowhim

FuHongxing

25 IvenssculptureinParis BryanMcCormack

42 IvensandChile TizianaPanizza

43 IvensandAustralia RobertHamilton

42 New:CinepoemCompetition

RensvanMeegen

46 KomsomolandTheGiantandtheBuilderMilenaMichalski

inthisedition:

IvensandHemingwayAlexVernon,StaceyGuill,DanMillerandSuzanneClark,NicolasBlayo

Internationalavant-gardeandtheChineseNationalAnthemLiangLuo

JoopHuiskenGünterJordan

3October 2010 | 162 October 2010 | 16

COLOPHONEuropeanFoundationJorisIvensEuropeseStichtingJorisIvensFondationEuropéenneJorisIvensEuropäischeStiftungJorisIvens

Office

Visiting adress Arsenaalpoort12,6511PNNijmegenMailPb606NL–6500APNijmegenTelephone+31(0)243888774Fax+31(0)243888776E-mail info@ivens.nlHomepagewww.ivens.nlConsultation archives: HetArchief,CentrumvoorStads-enStreekhistorieNijmegen/MunicipalArchivesNijmegenMariënburg27,byappointmentBoard MarcelineLoridan-Ivens,presidentClaudeBrunel,vice-presidentJoséManuelCosta,memberTinekedeVaal,memberMarcVernet,memberJanRoelofs,treasurerSabineLenk,member

Comité d’HonneurTheo Angelopoulos /Tinto Brass / Jérôme Clément / Constantin CostaGavras/RégisDebray/JackLang/ClaudeLanzman/EdgarMorin/Vin-cenzoFrancoPorcelli/ IgnacioRamonet/EdgarReitz/ PaoloTaviani/FrederickWiseman

StaffAndréStufkens,directorAnneJaspersRensvanMeegen,coordinatorHilkeLekkerkerkerEricBrouwerBrittvanBebberMerelGeelen

DesignWaltervanRooij,Villa33grafischontwerperBNOPrintedbyDrukwerkUnlimited

Cover photo Joris Ivens and Ernest Hemingway in Hollywood,July1937©IvensArchives/Coll.EFJI

TheEFJIisanassociateofFIAF(FéderationInternationaledesArchivesduFilm)

TheEFJIissubsidizedbytheProvinceofGelderland

ISSN1568–9131

©EuropeanFoundationJorisIvens.Allrightsreservedbytheauthorsandthepublisher.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,storedinre-trievalsystemortransmittedinanyformorbyanymeanswithoutpriorpermissioninwritingfromthepublisher.

©TheEFJIhasmadeeveryefforttocontactallcopyrightholders.Ifpro-peracknowledgementshasnotbeenmade,weaskcopyrightholderstocontactEFJI.

FédérationInternationaledes Archives du Film

Fordecades‘LePrixJorisIvens’wasgrantedatthisfestival,butthe2010editionofthefestivalgaveanewimpulsetothisaward.ArtisticdirectorJavierPacker-Comynsays:‘Thetiming is perfect. Indeedwe launched anew competitivesection ‘Premiers films / First films’ dedicated to youngfilmmakers. ‘Cinémaduréel’presents thisnewsection inordertopromotethedebutsandtheJoris Ivensawardassomething really important. Next to our main prize thisis the most important award. In this section the festivalshowsthebest‘firstandsecondfilms’ofthewholecompet-itiveselectionofthefestival.BothMarcelineLoridan-Ivens,theEuropeanFoundationJorisIvensandl AssociationdesAmisduCinémaduréelaresupportingthenewcompeti-tionwithatotalgrantof7.500euro.AfterallthisfitsJorisIvens’ideals,whoduringhislifetimespentmucheffortinsupporting and encouraging young filmmakers whereverhecould.MarcelineLoridan-Ivenspresentedthe‘JorisIvensAward’toChileanfilmmakerRenéBallesterosforhisdocumentaryLa Quemadura (The Burn).ThenewFirstFilmssectionfounditsnaturalplaceamongthecompetitiveproposition.With

thenewJorisIvensAwarditestablishedanattentivelookattheboldestyoungcontemporarycreation.

La QuemaduraIn the documentary the Chilean director René Ballesterostells the story of his mother, who disappeared during thedictatorship26yearsago.ItisfilmedfromtheperspectiveofRenéandhissisterKarin,whoattheageofalmost30areattempting to discover the true reason for their mother’sstrangedisappearance.Thefilmalsomakesmanyreferen-cestotheChileanpublishinghouseQuimantú,whichwasbornasaprojectofSalvadorAllende’sUnidadPopulargov-ernmenttomakeliteraturemoreaccessibletovulnerablesectorsofsociety.However,itsbookswereburnedafterthecoupd’etat,andthefewcopiesthatremainaddtoBalleste-ros’sstory,whichusesthemtounderstandthepast.Nexttothe‘JorisIvensAward’La QuemaduradidwontheAward of Best Filmmaker at the SANFIC Festival (FestivalInternacional de Cine de Santiago de Chile) and the FirstPrizeoftheJury intheOriginalFull-LengthDocumentarySectionatthefestivalDocumentaMadrid.

Since 1978, the ‘Cinéma du réel’ international documentary film festival in Paris has been an outstanding international meeting point, where the public and professionals discover the films of experienced authors as well as new talents, the history of documentary cinema as well as contemporary works. The festival programmed this year 226 films for its various sections, screened at the Centre Pompidou, the Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles, the MK2 Beaubourg film theatre and several other theatres in the Ile-de- France area.

Marceline Loridan-Ivens

presenting the Joris Ivens

Award to director René

Ballesteros on 27 March 2010.

Photo © Marion Saltel / Cdr

The audience at the 31th

Cinéma du reel award

evening. © Gaëlle Delort

/ Cdr

Javier Packer-Comyn, artistic

director. Photo © Marion

Saltel / Cdr

Sophie Goupil, president

l´Association des Amis du

Cinéma du réel. © Marion

Saltel / Cdr

And the Joris Ivens Award goes to…‘Le Prix Joris Ivens’ at Cinéma du réel

AndréStufkens

Table of contents

3 PresentationJorisIvensAward,Cinémaduréel

4 InterviewRenéBallesteros4 PresentationGermanDVDbox,

Leipzig,5 JorisIvensweekendattheDutch

CultureCentreinShanghai6 InternationalAvant-gardeandthe

ChineseNationalAnthem:TianHan,JorisIvens,andPaulRobeson

LiangLuo14 JorisIvensasIknowhim FuHongxing15 Commemorationof100thbirthday

HuiminSitu16 TheFoundationupdate18 Hemingway,IvensandTheSpanish

Earth NicolasBlayo,StaceyGuill,Axel

Vernon,DanielMillerandSusanneClark

24 Ivensandcontemporaryart BryanMcCormack25 AnthonyFreestone26 ThefilmworkerJoopHuisken,an

almostforgottencolleagueandcol-laboratorofJorisIvens

GünterJordan42 FirstCinepoemCompetition RensvanMeegen42 JorisIvensandChile TizianaPanizza,43 ReviewJorisIvensandAustralia

‘IndonesiaCalling’ RobertHamilton44 Doc’sKingdom:TheArchiveImage RensvanMeegen46 Constructionandreconstruction:

KomsomolandTheGiantandtheBuilder

MilenaMichalski50 Newpublications52 ShortCuts

MAGAZINE

4 5October 2010 | 16October 2010 | 16

Interview René Ballesteros

Canyoudescribethepresentationevening,whatdiditmeantoyoupersonally?Ballesteros:‘It was an exciting soirée. I was not expecting this at all. It’s my first film and the world premiere was at Cinéma du réel. I imagined that people who received awards at festivals, were discreetly advised by the organization. When they began to describe the film that won the Joris Ivens Award and when they spoke of a director who made a film searching for it’s missing mother it went through my head in a moment that someone had done a movie with the same subject as me and how it was possible that I had not seen this film in the program. When I was asked on stage and stood in front of Marceline Loridan-Ivens I could not believe it. The only thing I managed to say was that it was like in Chroniqued’unété. She laughed and said ‘but it was almost 50 years ago!’. It was very nice to receive the prize, Joris Ivens means so much to me as a filmmaker as well as the special relationship Ivens had with Chile. And to meet Marceline. Unforgettable.’

Doesthisprice,thePrixJorisIvenshelpsyouinthenextproject?Ballesteros:‘The award for LaQuemadura, my first film, a documentary that tried to relate the story of my family with the history of my country and having received this recognition is certainly a driving force, something that makes me confident. For me it means that what I do can be welcomed and appreciated by others.’

Whichtrendsdoyouseeincontemporarydocumentary?Ballesteros:‘In contemporary documentary I see not one but many paths. The documentary draws on contemporary fiction, contemporary art, video, and I think that it’s a secret source that feeds the fiction. The relationship between documentary and fiction is today, similar to that of poetry and prose.’

WhatdopioneersandpredecessorslikeIvensmeantoyou?Ballesteros:‘Ivens’s work, Michel Brault, Pierre Perrault, the Maysles brothers is indicative of the strength of documentary. I think they are authors who always emphasized both the filmmaker’s position as the characters in their movies. They never start from scratch. Their films are about life but also about cinema. And the films of Ivens, for example, is a cinema that is both experience of human desire as cinema in itself. In addition, Joris Ivens had a special relationship with Chile. He supported the creation and reflection in my country. It is a cinema that always takes risks, aesthetic and political. And the risk is a vital component to create. For me, the existence of these authors is a fertile, real presence like good company in this often lonely work.’

Whatisyournextproject?Ballesteros:‘Before making films I worked for several years as a psychologist in southern Chile. I specialized in working with adolescents in prisons and street children. In my next movie I would like to work with youth in prisons in southern Chile, and build a sort of psycho-social horror film. What happens in those environments at the time made me think of a horror movie. And I’d like to do a mix of fiction and documentary, a psychological horror film. It’s a risk-taking project, but it’s something I want to do.’

DOK-LeipzigAtthe52thDOKLeipzigDocumentaryFestivaltheBunde-sarchiv-Filmarchiv presented its 50th Retrospective withan homage to Ivens with 20 films, a publication and de-bates.MoltoMenz(AbsolutMEDIEN)launchedtheGermanversionofthe JorisIvensFilmmakeroftheWorldDVDbox-set´on28October2009.

‘We love Shanghai…It’s the kind of big city we’re used to. Large crowds, thousands of different stores. Curiosity, constant movement.’…reads the commentary text, writ-ten by Joris Ivens and Marceline Loridan-Ivens for La Pharmacie: Shanghai / The Drugstore: Shanghai in 1976.

SincethenShanghaievenmorerapidlygrewintotodaysvi-brantmetropolisof20Millioninhabitants,thelargestcityofChinaandthelargestportintheworld.ThisyearShang-haihostedtheWorldExhibitiononthebanksofthePudongriver,withanexpected70Millionvisitors.TheNetherlandspresenteditsculturalqualitiesbothontheenormousex-hibitionsitewithaPavillioncalled`HappyStreet’,aswellas outside this area downtown Shanghai. Here the DutchCultureCentreshowedaninspiringvarietyofprogrammes,amongotherstheJorisIvensweekendon9and10July,withtheattendanceofMarcelineLoridan-Ivens.

AlonghistoryJorisIvens’personalrelationshipwithShanghaishowsahis-toryspanninghalfacentury.Alreadyin1934IvensintendedtotraveltoShanghaiandshootonlocationafeaturefilmbased on André Malraux’s novel ‘La condition humaine’.ThebookdramatizedtheCommunistuprisingin1927,butIvens’adaptationforscreenwasn’trealized.Howeverfouryearslater,inSpring1938,IvenssucceededinreachingChi-naforthefirsttime.HemadeThe 400 MillioninwhichheincludedfootageaboutthedevastatingbombardmentonShanghaibytheJapanesefascistairforce.ShanghaibecamethedécorofthreepartsoftheHow Yukong Moved the Moun-tains-series,whereIvensandLoridan-Ivensduringthefirstmonthsof1973capturedcitylifeinAn impression of a city: Shanghai, The PharmacyandThe Generator Factory.ImagesofShanghaialsoappearedinIvens/Loridan-Ivensfinalfilmin1988:A Tale of the Wind.

VividdebatesTheDutchCulturalCentre,establishedinarenovatedtex-tile factory, programmed 12 films for an enthusiastic andverykeenaudience.MarcelineLoridan-Ivenswasreceivedlike a vedette, the deeply felt friendship resulted in ap-plause,gifts,interviewsandwarmaffection.Shefromherside invited the audience to participate in open vivid de-bates.‘TheimagesofShanghaiduringtheCulturalrevolu-tionareexactlyasIrememberthisperiodmyself’,amanrecalled. A woman said: ‘The sequences of the pharmacyand post office in are very deer to my mother, be-causeshelivedthereandallbuildingsaregonenow.Thesearetheonlyimagesleft’.Anothermancriticisedthewear-ing of white shirts in The Football Incident. According tohismemorypupilsdidn’twearthesekindofshirtsatthattime. Was it manipulated? Marceline Loridan-Ivens spokesincerelyabouttheproductionandexplainedthatnothingwasre-enacted.Noactorswereinvolvedandespeciallythenewwayofdirectfilmingcreatedthissenseofspontaneousreality.Itwasahardfighttogaintrustandletthepeoplebethemselves.Butofcourseeveryfilmmakingneedsa‘mise-en-scene’,speciallighting,compositionsetc.Forthisaudi-encetheYukong-seriesproofedtobeacompletelyuniquetestimonyofShanghaiinthe1970’s.‘WehadthisintenseideaofcreatingabridgebetweenEastandWest,betweentheWesternworldandChina’,Marce-lineLoridan-Ivensexplainedaboutherintentions.Thissuc-cessfulJorisIvensweekendstrengthenedthisbridge.

From Shanghai with Love Joris Ivens at the World Exhibition

• 1- Karl Griep (director

Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv),

Monica Maurer (filmmaker,

interpreter), Marceline

Loridan-Ivens and Claas

Danielsen (director DOK

Leipzig) opening the Ivens

retrospective. Photo Monika

Kaiser © B-F

• 2- Opening event with Claas

Danielsen. © DOK

• 3- The Audience

• 4- DOK Podium, 29 October,

a public conversation

between Marceline Loridan-

Ivens and film critic Ralph

Eue.

• 5- Wolfgang Klaue receives

a special Ivens DVDbox set

from André Stufkens. The

German book is dedicated

to Klaue, to honour his

enormous merits for

safeguarding German film

art. Photo Monika Kaiser

© B-F

• 6- The Bundesarchiv-

Filmarchiv received for

the Ivens retrospective the

Award for best archival film

programme, presented by

the DEFA-Foundation. In the

middle Barbara Heinrich-

Polte (organizer) and Karl

Griep.

• René Ballesteros

Filmstill La Quemadura

/ The Burn © R. Ballesteros

• The Dutch Culture Centre

in Shanghai, 9 July 2010.

Design keyvisuals: Walter

van Rooij.

• Marceline Loridan-Ivens

opening the debate.

Photo © Liu Lung Shang

• Marceline Loridan-Ivens and

André Stufkens.

Photo © Liu Lung Shang

• The audience.

Photo © André Stufkens

• The vice-consul general of

the Netherlands

• Marceline Loridan-Ivens

with a filmcrew

6 7October 2010 | 16October 2010 | 16

One Song, Three RenditionsIntheoriginalfilm,thesongopenswithclose-upsonabeat-ing drum and a blowing bugle, and it initiates the musicin thestyleofamilitarymarch.Amale intellectualandayounggirlleadthecrowd:theirfacesinclose-ups,glowingwithdeterminationandhappiness.Theirmixedvoicesing-ing, especially the male voice, dominates the whole song.Everyone,menorwomen,youngorold,marchesontofightthe Japanese in a resolute unison, as shown in repeatedclose-upsontheirmarchingfeet.Threeyearslater,inDutchfilmmakerJorisIvens’(1898-1989)

documentaryThe 400 MillionshotonlocationinChinain1938,itisthispopularfilmsongthatwasheardaccompany-ingtheraisingoftheflagoftheRepublicofChina.‘Marchof theVolunteers,’againsungbyachorusofmixedvoice,permeatesatightlyeditedone-minutesequencelinkingaseriesofactivities:anopeningshotofthebackoftwomili-tary band members with their Sousaphones, a low angleshot of the rising Nationalist flag cuts to a group of mengazinguptowardsit,femalestudentsinRedCrossuniformshouting‘longlivetheRepublicofChina’leadstoachorus

leader rhythmically conducting a group of students sing-ing, and actors tearing down Japanese flag and shoutingsloganswithraisedfistsreplacedbyayounggirlonanele-vatedplatformpassionatelyurgingheraudiencetodonatemoneyandjoinuptofighttheJapaneseonthewarfront.1Anotherthreeyearslater,PaulRobeson(1898-1976),theAf-ricanAmericansinger,actor,athlete,andactivist,recorded‘CheeLai:SongsofNewChina’withaChinesechorusinNewYorkin1941.‘CheeLai,’or‘Arise,’wasthefirstlineof‘MarchoftheVolunteers,’andRobesonsangthesongfirstinChinese,andtheninEnglish.TheEnglishtranslationwasreportedlytranslatedbythethenexiledChineseconductorLiuLiang-mo,inconsultationwithTianHan,writeroftheoriginallyr-ics,thoughitislikelythatRobesonhimselfalsocontributedtosomeofthewording,includingaddingkeywordssuchas‘freedom’and‘democracy,’whichwashintedbutneverex-plicitlystatedintheChineseoriginal.Robesonwouldsing‘MarchoftheVolunteers’onmanymoreoccasionssincethereleaseofthe1941album,andhis liveperformanceattheWorldPeaceConferenceinApril1949inPrague,mighthaveevencontributedtothesongbeingdesignatedasthetem-poraryNationalAnthemofthePeople’sPublicofChinaatitsfoundinginOctober1949.From the 1935 Shanghai film song to the 1938 soundtrackof a documentary film made by a Dutch filmmaker fromHollywood,2fromthesingingofthesamesonginbothChi-nese and English by an African American actor and activ-istintheUnitedStatesin1941tothespreadofthesonginEuropeinearly1949,thisclusterofvoicesandimagessug-gest that the production, circulation, and consumption of‘MarchoftheVolunteers’andthemakingofthefilmsongintotheChineseNationalAnthemhadasmuchtodowiththejointeffortofaninternationalavant-gardeaswiththeriseofnationalisminChinesepolitics.

The International Avant-gardeIemphasizetheconnectionbetweentheinterwarinterna-tionalavant-gardeandthefutureChinesenationalanthemthroughthefiguresofthreemen:theChinesewriterofthefilmstoryandlyricsofthesong,TianHan,theDutchfilm-makerwhousedthesongthreetimesinhisdocumentary,JorisIvens,andthepowerfulsingerandpropagatorofthesonginbothChineseandEnglish,PaulRobeson.Theyrep-resentthediversityandinterconnectednessoftheinterwarinternational avant-garde, from China, Europe, and theUnitedStates.What do I mean by ‘international avant-garde,’ anyway?From Poggioli to Calinesku, and from Bürger to Murphy,3the idea of the ‘avant-garde’ has been defined and rede-finedthroughoutthesecondhalfofthetwentiethcentury.Inthecontextof‘MarchoftheVolunteers,’themaleintel-lectualandtheyounggirlwereindeedthe‘avant-gardes,’inthesensethattheywerechargingaheadas‘vanguards,’leadingtheothervolunteersintheirmilitarymarch.Relatedtothemilitaryoriginoftheconceptofthe‘avant-garde,’ Iamalsohighlightingitsassociationwithutopiansocialism. French utopian socialist Saint Simon first usedtheterminthesenseofartassocialengineering.Thepoli-ticsoftheavant-gardewasfurtheremphasizedwhenGer-manphilosopherHegelreferredtotheavant-gardeas‘thefirstteacherofthepeople,’andthe19thcenturywitnessedrealistsandartists likeVanGoghandtheircommitmentstosocietyandtheirincreasingself-identificationasartisticMessiahs.ThedisasterofWorldWarImadepossiblethere-birthofartistsasvisionariesandprophetsofthenewage.Andtheradicalizationoftheavant-gardeinthetwentiethandthirtiesculminatedintheSpanishCivilWar,a‘warofartists.’4Thisleadsustothemid-1930smomentinthede-

velopment of the international avant-garde, the momentwhen‘MarchoftheVolunteers’wasborninChina.Tian Han, Joris Ivens, and Paul Robeson were all born in1898, as well as the German composer Hanns Eisler whocomposedforIvens’The 400 Million,andtheGermanplay-wrightBertoltBrechtwhowrotelyricsforIvensandwroteplays on China. The Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein,whoseBattleship Potemkin cametorepresenttheRussianavant-garde and had direct influence on both Tian Hanand Joris Ivens, was also born in 1898; as well as the Chi-nesepremierZhouEnlai,whowasthekeyreasonthatIvensfrequentlyreturnedtoChinatofilmforoverhalfacenturyfrom1938to1988.Allofthembelongtothegenerationwhocameofageinpost-WWIBerlin,Tokyo,Paris,NewYork,Am-sterdam,andShanghai.HailingfromtheDutchcityofNijmegen,JorisIvensbeganstudiesattheTechnicalUniversityinBerlinin1921.Hefre-quentedtheatres,artgalleries,andotherculturalvenues.Germaine Krull was Ivens’ ‘Red Salome,’ as the Russian-educatedAnEwastoTianHan.5IvensandKrullmetinthespringof1923,andtheformerradicalrevolutionaryintro-ducedhimtotheRomanischeCafé,wheretheExpression-istsandrevolutionariesbothgatherinpost-WWIBerlin.6

WhenIvensreturnedfromstudyinBerlinandfoundFilm-liga in Amsterdam with like-minded friends in 1927, TianHanhadspentsixyearsstudyinginTokyofrom1916to1922.Asaneighteen-year-oldin1916,Tianfoundhimselfsituatedinanoverwhelmingandexcitingculturalenvironment:hefrequentedmoderndramaperformances,especiallyWest-ern adaptations, and was first introduced to the ‘dream

world’ofHollywoodandEuropeanfilms.Heclaimedtohavebecomea‘cinemafan’thefirstyearinTokyo.Hewasinclosecontact with the earliest development of Japanese film-making,especiallytheTaihatsu,whereThomasKurihara,anactoranddirectorreturnedfromHollywood,workedsidebysidewithTanizakiJun’ichirôintheirendeavortodevelopa‘pure’JapanesecinemaasareactionagainstHollywood,inthesamefashionasJorisIvensandTianhimselfcametode-clareinAmsterdamandShanghaiaround1927.Asonofarunawayslave,PaulRobesonraisedtheissueofraceandcalledforaNewIdealisminhis 1919commence-mentorationatRutgersUniversity.HisremarksontheWWIpresented a powerful statement of self-determination, ‘anewvisionandanewAmericanspirit,’7whichcorrespondedwithwhatTianHanwrotein1919linkingWhitmanandWil-soninademocraticvisionofanewAmericanism.8From1919to1926,Robesonreveledintheexcitementoftheunfolding

International Avant-garde and the Chinese National Anthem:Tian Han, Joris Ivens and Paul Robeson

Tian Han, Joris Ivens and Paul

Robeson, all born in 1898.

Zhao Weimin, Nanjing Road,

from a series of Views of

Shanghai, after 1932.

Coll. Shanghai History

Museum.

Three different versions of ‘March of the Volunteers’ (yiyongjun jinxingqu), the film song that became the national anthem of the People’s Republic of China after 1949, frame this essay. The first, and the original version of the song, came from the 1935 Chinese feature film Lovers in Troubled Times (Fengyun ernü). Written by Tian Han (1898-1968), who had intimate contact with German expressionism and Russian avant-garde while sojourning in Tokyo and became a leading cultural figure in Shanghai at the time, the opening lyrics of the song urged the Chinese to rise up in face of Japanese invasion.

Germaine Krull was Ivens’ ‘Red Salome,’ as the Russian- educated An E was to Tian Han

LiangLuo

8 9October 2010 | 16October 2010 | 16

HarlemRenaissance.HewasintroducedtothebestoftheGreenwichVillagebohemianartistsinthesamefashionasTianHanwasatthecenterofabohemianartisticcircleinShanghai in 1926. Robeson’s rescuing‘Negro Spirituals’ asfolk music suitable for concert performance was compa-rabletoTianHan’sreformingChineselocaloperasthrough-outtheircareers.JamesJoyce,ErnstHemingway,andLangs-tonHugheswereamongtheadmirersofRobeson’sconcertperformancesaswellashisrecords.9Moreimportant,PaulRobesoncametorepresentthepoliticalengagementoftheavant-gardeasheincreasedhisintimatecontactwithLaborPartyactivistsinBritaininthelate1920s.10Throughoutthe1930s,Robeson’sracialidentificationwithhisownblackcul-turalrootsledhimtouseChinaasamodelforAfrica,andafterhisexperienceinSpainandhisexposuretotheSovietUnion,andhiscontactswiththeChineseresistancemove-ments during the WWII, he came to increasingly identifywithapowerfulrevolutionaryinternationalism.11The interwar international avant-garde and their sharedidentification with Soviet Union and China as alternativeculturalresourcesagainstthedecayingofbourgeoissociet-iesoriginatedinaclusterofsharedculturaltexts:SwedishplaywrightAugustStrindberginfluencedbothJo-risIvensandTianHangreatly,andhisGhost SonatawasonstagewithProvincetownPlayersduringPaulRobeson’sas-sociationwithEugeneO’NeillandthePlayers.Strindberg’sA Dream PlaywasplayinginBerlinin1921byMaxReinhardt’scompany and Ivens recorded his excitement of seeing it.12Around the same time, Tian Han was creating one of hisveryfirststageplays inTokyo.He inserteda‘dreamscene’in his three-scene play‘The Holy Light’ (originally entitledFemale Faust),wherethefemaleprotagonistMeili(ChinesetransliterationofMary)wasleadbyMephistophelestobearwitnesstothesufferingoftherefuges,inasimilarfashionastheChrist-likefemaleprotagonistAgneswasleadtoex-perienceinA Dream Play.13RobertWiene’sThe Cabinet of Dr. CaligaripremieredinBer-linandTokyoalmostsimultaneouslyintheearly1920s,andSergei Eisenstein’s The Battleship Potemkin was shown byTianHaninShanghaiin1926,andbyIvens’groupafteritsfoundinginAmsterdamin1927.14Inthesameyear,TianHanfoundedNanguoFilmandDramaInstitutetomakehisfirstfilmV Narod (To The People)withaRussianandGermanicmotifinShanghai.Joris Ivens was associated with a group of artistic friendsinBerlin,AmsterdamandParisaroundthesametime,whoagreed about notions of anti-bourgeois morals and thedesireforinnovation.HendrikMarsmanwastheTianHanfigureinthisgroup,whowrote,‘Artandlifeareone,undi-videdandundistinguished.’15Thisattitudeofsocialinvolve-mentissomethingJorisIvens,PaulRobeson,andTianHanremainedloyaltoalltheirlives,withthelatteradvocating‘theartificationoflife’intheirdailypracticesinShanghai.Both Joris Ivens and Tian Han were deeply influenced bytrends in Russian literature and Soviet cinema. Gorki’s

novelMotherinfluencedboth,thoughTianwasmainlyin-fluenced by the original story and rewrote it as a one-actplay in Shanghai,16 while Ivens was mainly influenced byPudovkin’sfilmadaptationof theoriginalstory.TheOcto-berRevolutionhadusheredinaperiodofculturalfreedominwhichFuturists,Suprematists,Constructivistsandotheravant-gardistsexperimentedwithfilm,theater,music,liter-atureandthevisualarts,thishadprofoundimpactonJorisIvensandTianHanasearlyasinthelate1910sandonPaulRobesoninthelate1920s.Amidst the fever of all the cultural experimentations, theriseofsoundasadominatingfeatureonscreenintheglob-alfilmindustryandthemechanicalreproductionandcircu-lationoffilmsongsbroughtaboutrevolutionaryeffects.Jo-risIvens’documentaryPhilips Radio becamethefirstDutchfilmwithsoundin1931.HealsojoinedtheCommunistPartyof Holland in the same year.Tian Han joined the ChineseCommunistPartyin1932,andwentontowritesomeofthemostpopularscreensongsinthemid1930s.AlthoughPaulRobeson was never a Communist Party member, his sym-pathy with the common people, originated in his humblebeginning, intensified during his concert tours in Britainaround1928to1929.Hencetheconversationsbetweenthemakingandpropagatingofapopularfilmsong,thesharedexperience of an interwar international avant-garde, andtheradicalizationoftheartistsworkedhandinhand.

Tian Han and the Making of a Popular Film SongItisthusimportanttostepbackandtracetheconceptionofthesonganditsinitialcirculationthroughprint,record,radio,andfilm,andhowsuchprocesseswerecloselylinkedtoaninternationalmilieuofinterwaravant-gardecenteredonthefigureofTianHaninShanghaiinthemid1930s.WrittenbyTianHanastwoshortstanzasofanunfinishedepic poem in a film story in January 1935, the simple andcolloquialexpressionsinthelyricscontainsomeofthemost‘catchy’phrasesofthetime.Expressionssuchas‘GreatWallmadeoffleshandblood’(xuerou changcheng),‘finaloutcry’(zuihou de housheng), as well as ‘ten thousand with onemind’(wanzhong yixin),17bothconsolidatedimageswidelycirculating in the popular imaginary, and further estab-lishedtheircanonicalstatusintheChinesenationalimagi-nation.Composed by a young composer Nie Er, the music, was‘agood example of what some musicians are trying to donow—thatis,inbrief,tocopythegoodpointsfromWesternmusicwithoutimpairingorlosingourownnationalcolor,’according to the author of a New York Times article andthe Chinese editor of a 1939 bilingual songbook, in whichthissongwasincluded.‘Thisstirring‘cryofpainandrage’spreadoverthecountrylikefire,’theeditorwroteinhisex-planatorynotes.18Thefilm,fromwhichthesongoriginated,wasmadebyDen-ton Film Company in Shanghai in 1935.The company wasfirst founded tosalesoundrecordingequipments,specifi-callythedomesticallyproducedSanyourecordingmachine.

ItwastakenoverbythethenundergroundCommunistPar-ty, and a film company was established in 1934.The partyconnectionhasalwaysframedthestoryoftheDentonFilmCompanyideologically,whileglossingoverotherimportantaspectssuchastechnology,market,andprofit,allofwhichcanbelinkedtothedevelopmentofaninternationalnet-workoftalentedartistsandactivists.AtthetimeofwritingthestoryfortheDentonfilm,TianHanwasheadoftheMusicGroupofthe‘SovietFriendsSociety,’aUnitedFrontstyleorganizationinitiatedbyMadameSunYat-SenandTianhimselfinearly1933.RenGuang,AnE,andNieErwereamongtheinitialmembersofthegroup.NieEr,thetalentedyoungcomposerfor‘MarchoftheVolunteers,’died under unclear circumstances in Japan on his way tothe Soviet Union in 1935. Ren Guang, a returned studentfromFrance,atthetimethemusicdirectorattheFrench-American music giant Pathé-EMI, who lived in a Westernvilla,equippedwithpianoandhighqualityradio,providednotonlyaspaceforthegatheringoftheMusicGroup,butalsothenecessarytechnicalfacilityfortheirdirectcommu-nicationwithSovietmusicviashortwavebroadcast.AnE,theRussian-educatedfemalewriterwholaterbecameTianHan’swife,hadjoinedRenGuangatthemusicdepart-ment of Pathé-EMI in 1933, and collaborated with him onOneofthefirstscreenhitsongsinChina.HencethepeopleinvolvedintheMusicGroupwerealsopartoftheinterna-tional avant-garde occupying important industrial posi-tionsinShanghaiatthetime.ThepopularityoffilmsongsmadetheMusicGroupacoreinstitutioninreachingouttothemasses:LiuLiangmo,thefutureactivecampaignerformass-singing through the Shanghai Y.M.C.A. who taughtPaulRobesontosing‘CheeLai’inChinese,wasalsoamem-berofthisgroupin1935.

‘MarchoftheVolunteers’wascentraltothemakingofthefilm,asDentonCompanywasdeterminedtomakethesongamarketsuccessevenbeforethefilmpremiersoastoat-tractmoreaudience.HeLuting,sounddirectoratDenton,wasentrustedwiththetaskofarranginginstrumentalac-companimentforthesong.AtHe’sinvitation,Russiancom-poser Aaron Avshalomov, whose creative life was lived es-sentiallyinChina,from1918to1947,composedtheorchestra

accompanimentsto‘MarchoftheVolunteers’inMay1935.Inthesamemonth,anelaborateadvertisementcampaignstarted on the popular Shanghai newspaper Shenbao. Afull-page print advertisement listed Seto Waiman (SituHuimin),Communistpartymember,filmmaker,andcousinofSituYimin,anAmerican-educatedengineerwhohelpedcreatethesoundrecordingdevice,asoneofthesoundre-cordingtechnicians,andHeLutingasinchargeofmusicalaccompaniments.ItalsoreportedthatRenGuang,themu-sicdirectoratPathé-EMI,hadrecorded‘MarchoftheVolun-teers’sungbytheDentonchorusmembersonMay9,1935.Hencetheadvertisementalsocontainedashortlineadver-tisingthisgramophonerecord.Fromanunfinishedpoemtoafull-fledgedfilmsongwithhighly sophisticated instrumental accompaniment, themakingof‘MarchoftheVolunteers’wasanessentialcom-ponentof themakingof the1935filmhit.Thoughorches-tratedbyDentonFilmCompany,itselfanenterprisebasedon the newly invented sound recording device and sup-portedbytheundergroundCommunistparty,this‘chorus’couldnothavebeenformedwithoutthecoordinatedeffortfromall thetechnical,musical,andcommercialpersonnelinvolved. Many of the‘singers’ and‘actors’ in this‘chorus’were closely associated with the post-WWI internationalavant-gardeandhadakeensenseofproductmarketinginamediasociety.IhavefoundmultipleconnectionswithJorisIvensthrough-outtheprocessofthemakingandfurtherpropagatingof‘March of theVolunteers.’ Situ Huimin, one of the sound-recordingtechniciansfortheoriginalfilmsong,wouldbe-comeaclosecontactinChinaforJorisIvensinthe1950s.19

Shanghai and Man´s FateThe first attempt of Joris Ivens to create a film in China was not in 1938, but already four years earlier. After French novelist André Malraux published his novel Le condition humaine (Man´s fate, 1933), for which he received Le prix Goncourt, Ivens and Malraux decided to adapt the novel to a screenplay. Le condition humaine depicted the 1927 Communist uprising in Shanghai and the party’s later disintegration in a purge and massacre led by its ally Chiang Kai-shek and his Nationalist forces. At first a French film producer was interested, but the project was soon cancelled. Later on the Mezrapbhom Studios in Moscow took over. Although being a fiction film it was Ivens´desire and plan to travel to Shanghai and film it on the spot. It would deepen the realistic, documentary approach. Later on there were negotiations with Meyerhold’s theatre group who wanted to adapt the novel to a theatre play. Also Skljoet, the script writer of Eisenstein, became involved and he wrote a script. At the end all attempts led to nothing. Decades later other attempts by Zimmerman, Bertolucci and others also failed.

• Film Poster for Lovers in

Troubled Times (1935)

• Filmstill, Singing ‘March

of the Volunteers’ in Lovers

in Troubled Times (1935)

• Paul Robeson singing

• Joris Ivens, film still from

The 400 Million.© JIA/EFJI

• Ivens´personal note with

Chinese text of ´Volunteer

March´, 1938. Coll. Joris

Ivens Archives.

• Pathé record of

´The March of the

Volunteers´, 1935

• The score of ´March of the

Volunteers´

Paul Robeson singing

10 11October 2010 | 16October 2010 | 16

Ivenswouldfind,mostpossibly, the1935Dentonrecordofthesongduringpost-productioninHollywoodinlate1938,theonlyrecordofaChinesesongthathecouldlocateinHol-lywoodatthetime.20Mostimportant,onApril22,1938,TianHan, the mastermind of the song and head of the MusicGroupin1935,thenthebureauchiefinchargeofpropagan-daintheUnitedFrontoftheNationalistsandCommunistsinWuhan,representing14groupsandmorethan200cul-turalfigurespresent,personallywelcomedJorisIvenswhenhereturnedfromTai’erzhuangtoHankou.Ivens’concludingwordsatthewelcomingmeetingwererecordedasfollows:IrepresentcountlesspeopleinEuropeandNorthAmerica,whosympathizewiththeanti-JapanesewarinChina.Inor-dertodefendtruthandhumanity,IamfilmingatruerecordofthecourageouswareffortinChina,soastohaveitspreadallovertheworld.21

Joris Ivens and The 400 MillionJorisIvens,who,withErnestHemingway,madeThe Spanish EarthdocumentingtheSpanishCivilWarin1936,arrivedinChinainFebruary1938tomakeThe 400 Million,adocumen-taryof‘thepeople’swarinChinaagainstJapan.’Alongsidehisshootingnotesonthe‘flag-raisingscene,’Ivensinclud-edlyricsofYiyongjun jinxingqu (‘MarchoftheVolunteers,’

which he translated as‘Volunteer March’) written out forhim in Chinese characters, and regarded the song as the‘Chinese National Hymn,’22 mistakenly, but perhaps pro-phetically,givingitanidentityitwouldonlyassumemorethanadecadelater.

Ivens is well informed in identifying‘March of theVolun-teers’as thefirstsongfor theflag-raisingsequence inhisfilm. Facing clear external threats and a single nationalenemy,‘March of theVolunteers’ functioned as an impor-tantcalltoarmssummoninganewChinesenationandanewtypeofChinesecitizenintobeing.TheglobalpoliticalclimatebetweenthetwoWorldWars,fromtheriseofanti-colonialnationalisminAfrica,Asia,andLatinAmerica,23totheformationofaninternationalistpoliticalsolidarity,pro-vided fertile grounds for the reemergence of the‘masses’and‘volunteers’asimportantreligious,political,andpopu-larculturalcategories.Italy’sannexationofAbyssinia(nowEthiopia)aftertheSecondItalo-AbyssinianWarin1936,likethe Japanese annexation of Manchuria after the MukdenIncidentin1931, triggeredwritersandartiststocreatefig-uresofsufferingandhumiliation;24andthesoundsandim-agesoftheInternationalBrigadesattheSpanishCivilWarpopularizedbyJorisIvens,ErnestHemingway,RobertCapa,andPaulRobeson,25havebeenetchedintoaferventcollec-tivepoliticalaspiration.EvenbeforePaulRobeson’s1941bilingualalbumwaspub-lished, Ivens had encountered the resounding ‘Chee Lai’whileonlocationinChinain1938:‘…afterdinnerinanoldbarn,eachofussingssongsfromhiscountry.JohnandIsingoldDutchsongs,sailorsongs,andlovesongs.CaptainCarl-son plays Working on the Railroad on the harmonica. In ahoarse,melancholyvoiceCapasingssongsoftheHungar-ianplainsandthenweallsingaChinesewarsongwehavelearned:Chi-Lai!’26

Here‘Chi-Lai,’or‘MarchoftheVolunteers,’providedacom-mon language and a common expression for the Dutchfilmmakers,theAmericanCaptain,andtheHungarianpho-tojournalist, in the ‘catchy tune’ composed by Nie Er andpossiblyintheoriginalChineselyricswrittenbyTianHan.Ivens reported again how, after the battle ofTaierzhuang,‘avolunteersongofNorthChina,awarsong’wassungdur-inganightmarch,‘oneoftheofficersupfrontontheroadstartsthesong,anotherpicksitup,thenathird,andthenweallsing.’NowitseemsonlynaturalforIvenstohaveincluded‘MarchoftheVolunteers’asthenumberonesonginhisfilm.JohnFernhout (John Ferno), 25 at the time and already a sea-sonedcameramanwhocollaboratedwithIvenssinceRegen(Rain, 1929), one of the representative pieces of Europeanavant-garde documentary, introduced a chorus sequencewith masterful control of the camera in The 400 Million.Thesceneopenswiththecamerapanningfromlefttorightthroughfacesofsingingyounggirlsinmediumshots.Be-hind thegirl studentsareboys inmilitaryuniform,possi-blynewrecruitsatthisrecruitinggatheringinXi’an,asthebigbannersinpreviousscenesindicated.Thecamerahigh-lightsthegirlswhoprominentlyoccupythefrontrow,withoneofthemholdingatriangularflagwithcharactersread‘propagandateam’(xuanchuan dui).27Thenthescenecutstoalongershotfromtheoppositeangle,revealingthecho-rusformation.Theprevioussceneisindeedpartofachorusformed by two rows of female students in front, and onerowofmalestudentsinuniformintheback.Thecrowdisgatheringandthecameraagainpansfromlefttorighttodisclosethelocationofthechorusleader.Nowsurroundedbyhischorusfromtheleft,andthespectatorsontherightforming a half circle, the skinny young man, in his well-tailoredZhongshansuit,passionatelyconductsthechoruswhileleadingthesinginghimself.Accompanyingthemasterfullyeditedsequenceis‘MarchoftheVolunteers’sungbyachorusofmixedvoice(mostpos-siblyfromtheDentonrecordIvenslocatedinHollywood,asitwasnottheall-malechorusrecordedinHankou),inthe

samefashionthesongmayhavebeensungbytheenthu-siasticmass-singingparticipantsonscreen,thoughthereisnointentiontomatchthesongwiththemovementsoflipsortheconductor’sbatononthescreen.Hencethesingingof‘MarchoftheVolunteers’canbereadasbothdiegeticandnon-diegetic:itspeaksforallthehumanactivitiesconnect-ed through this mass-singing scene and could be issuedfrom sources both on and off the screen; it is also part ofthecommentaryandrepresentsthefilmmaker’sdeliberatechoice.Indefining‘MontageofAttractions,’SergeiEisensteinhigh-lightstheir‘shock’effectsinproducingspectators.‘Thespec-tatorhimselfconsiststhebasicmaterialofthetheatre,’fa-mouslysaysEisenstein,and‘theobjectiveofanyutilitariantheatreistoguidethespectatorinthedesireddirection.’28Eisensteinhighlightstheroleofpopularmusic,orwhathecallsthe‘emotivevibration’inmontage,todemonstratethebodilyeffectontheaudienceandspectators.Itisthusimportanttoreexaminetheremainingscenesac-companythesonginIvens’filmfromtheviewpointoftheroleofsoundandmusicinintensifying‘montageofattrac-tions.’Visibletothespectators(bothonandoffscreen)areactorstearingaJapaneseflagintoseveralpiecesandshout-ingsloganswiththebrokenflagintheirfists.Audibletotheaudience’s ears are the following comments:‘actors leavetheir theatres, play on the street corner.They instruct theaudiencehowtoresisttheenemy.’Allthewhile,‘MarchoftheVolunteers’playsinthebackground,stitchingthevisualandtheaudiointoadeliberatelypedagogicalstatement,al-beitanemotionallypersuasiveone.Ivens,afterreturningtotheUnitedStatesforpost-produc-tionofthefilm,gavealectureattheMuseumofModernArtonsubjectivityandmontageindocumentaryfilmin1939.In this lecture, he considered documentary as part of theavant-gardeemerginginEuropein1927 togivefilmartis-ticandeducationalvalues,butinsistedthatpureaestheticbringsfilmstoanartisticdeadend.Forhim,itismuchmoreimportant if a film is connected with a social movement,andheopenlyannounced:‘Yes,wearepropagandists!Art-

Hemingway, Ivens, and ChinaDuring the years following their collaboration for The Spanish Earth on the war front in Spain Ivens and Hemingway shared similar experiences on the war front in China. In February 1938 Ivens flew to China to film The 400 Millions, during which he was confronted with severe censorship by generalissimo Chang Kai-shek, leader of the Nationalists . Despite his limited access Ivens had a secret meeting with Zhou Enlai, leader of the Communists in Wuhan. This would be the start of a longtime friendship. In January 1941 Ernest Hemingway went to China on his honeymoon with Martha Gellhorn, while covering their travel for newspapers and magazines in the US. One day on the marketplace of Chongqing (or Chungking) Gellhorn was approached by a woman, who asked her whether she and her husband would like to meet Zhou Enlai. The name meant nothing to Gellhorn. Afterwards, when she asked Hemingway, he recognized the name, saying that he was ‘a friend of Joris’. After their illegal meeting Hemingway considered Zhou Enlai an incredibly charming and intelligent man and Gellhorn stated that he was the only decent man she met in China.Hemingway noted that the Communists made serious effort to attract the attention of Western artists and journalists, like Ivens, Snow, Smedley, Epstein, Hemingway and others.Source: Peter Moreira, Hemingway on the China Front. His WWII Spy Mission with Martha Gellhorn, Washington 2006, p. 127-129.

Portnoy’s Complaint and the National AnthemJoris Ivens’ misinterpretation of ‘The March of the Volunteers’ being already China’s National Anthem in 1938 was not unique. Alexander Portnoy, the protagonist of Philip Roth’s 1969 novel Portnoy’s Complaint made the same mistake when remembering the song: ‘…Just the rhythm alone can cause my flesh to ripple, like the beat of the marching song of the victorious Red Army, and the song we learned in grade school during the war, which our teachers called ‘The Chinese national Anthem’. ‘Arise, ye who refuse to be bond-slaves, with our very flesh and blood’ – oh, that defiant cadence! I remember every single heroic word! –‘we will build a new great wall!’ And then my favourite line, commencing as it does with my favourite word in the English language: ‘In-dig-na-tion fills the hearts of all of our coun-try-men! A-rise! A-rise! A-RISE!’ (This is the exact translation as in Pao-chen Li’s bilingual songbook published in Chongqing in 1939 and reprinted in Music Educators Journal by the National Association for Music Education in the United States in 1942.) The text is also living proof of the popularity of ‘The March of the Volunteers’ in the US during WWII due to the dissemination of the song through Robeson’s record and Ivens’ film.

Paul Robeson, Record Chee

Lai, Songs of New China,

1941.

Liu Liangmo conducting a

700-people chorus in Shanghai

in 1936

• Li Hua, Roar, China!,

1935, woodcut. Coll. Lu Xun

Memorial Hall.

• Robert Capa, Joris Ivens and

John Ferno shooting The

400 Million, 1938.

13October 2010 | 1612 October 2010 | 16

ists must take sides!’ He highlighted the subjectivity ofdocumentary filmmakers, and their necessary emotionalinvolvementwiththeirsubject.InthetrueEisensteintradi-tion,heemphasizedthecrucialimportanceofmontageinproducingspectatorsandachievingemotionalpersuasion.Thecaseof The 400 Millionwasusedtoillustratethehar-monyandclosecollaborationbetweenmusicandediting.

Paul Robeson as the Voice (Face) of China What Ivens and Ferno captured in Xi’an in May 1938 wasonly a single note in a symphony of mass-singing activi-tiesthroughoutChinaatthetime.LiuLiangmo,thechorusleaderandfutureteacherofPaulRobesoninsinging‘MarchoftheVolunteers’inChineseintheUnitedStates,wascap-turedinamemorableblackandwhitepictureconductinga700-peoplechorus:intheirstudentgowns,somegirlsrais-

ing their heads following the elevated conductor, others,songbookintheirhands,concentratedonsinging.Itseemsthat gender, as well as female-centered performance, stilloccupiesimportantsymboliclocationinsuchevents;soasindividualgeniusandagencyamidstthegiganticcollective:theskinnymalefigurebalancingonthehighladderlooksstrikinglysimilartotheskinnyandpassionateconductorinIvens’film.Liu Liangmo was mentioned in a November 30, 1941 NewYorkTimes article as‘the ShanghaiY.M.C.A. secretary whocommunicated his enthusiasm to many others and wascalledtoteachatthefront,’andpraisedastheinspirationofthismasssingingofpatrioticsongsinChina.Asaresult,theauthorquotesLinYutang,thefamousbilingualauthor,that‘Chinaisfindinghervoice!’This article was penned by New York Times music editorHowardTaubman,whowasintroducinganewalbum,Chee Lai,indeed‘MarchoftheVolunteers’withnewEnglishlyrics,withPaulRobesonsinginginChineseandEnglish,andLiuLiangmo singing with a Chinese chorus.Taubman consid-eredRobeson’sperformance‘withpowerandpassion,’andconcludedthat,‘thesongstellusmoreaboutChina’svalorthanabouthermusic,andatthemomentherfightismoremomentousthanherart.’However,Taubmanwouldsooncometotheconclusionthatthedistinctionbetween‘fight’and‘art’arenotsoclear-cutafterall.HewroteagaininNew York TimesonJune27,1942,halfayearafterPearlHarbor,onLiuLiangmo’sappearancein a Town Hall music program under the auspices of the‘Negro Publication Society of America.’ Liu was reportedas‘singing and speaking for the valiant Chinese,’ who‘of-fered‘Chee Lai,’ which means‘Arise!’.’This time,Taubmanappreciatedthesongsinamorewholesomefashion,asheclaimed that thesingers‘fight for their libertywithsongson their tongues as well as with guns, tanks and planes,’and that ‘they were true to the spirit of their songs andwas delightful for that reason.’ Liu’s connections with theAfrican American communities and his encounter withPaul Robeson in the United States has become legendary:LiutaughtRobeson,whorecentlyreturnedfromEurope,tosing‘MarchoftheVolunteers’inChinese,andthelatter,theleadingAfricanAmericanactor-singerofhistime,becameanastonishinglypowerfulspokesmanfortheChineseresis-tanceagainstJapaneseaggression.WhenthePacificWarbrokein1941,‘MarchoftheVolunteers’was sung in Singapore, Malaysia and other countries andareasofSoutheastAsia,andbecameamajormarchingsongin the international anti-Fascist movement. DuringWWII,radiostationsinEngland,USA,USSR,andIndiaoftenbroad-casttheRobesonversionofthesong.Andin1944,‘MarchoftheVolunteers’became theopeningmusicof theChineselanguagebroadcastatDehliRadioStation,India.AttheWorldPeaceConferenceinPragueinApril1949andontheoccasionofPushkin’s150thanniversaryinMoscow,Robesonwouldtwicesang‘CheeLai’inChineseandrecordrecordstomarkhistory,monthsbefore‘MarchoftheVolun-teers’assumingtheofficialstatusofa‘temporary’nationalanthem of the People’s Republic of China at its foundingonOctober1st,1949.ThevideorecordingofRobesonsinging‘CheeLai’inChineseatthePragueConferenceisnothinglessthansensational.Onecanonlyimaginethemusical,bodily,andemotionaleffectonsuchareceptiveinternationalau-dience and the possibly audience back in China, when anAfricanAmericansingersinginginChinesethewordsthathavebeenetchedintotheconsciousnessof‘the400million’forsomanyyears.

Concluding RemarksJoris Ivens and Tian Han’s linkage through March of the Volunteersof1935andThe 400 Millionof1938wereconsoli-datedbythemeetingofthetwoonApril22,1938inHankou;Paul Robeson andTian Han were connected by Robeson’ssinging of March of the Volunteers since 1940 and in theearly1950s,especiallyRobeson’screativetranslationoftheChinese lyricsasmediatedbyLiuLiangmoinNewYork intheearly1940s.WhenIinterviewedTianHanandAnE’ssonTianDaweiinBeijinginthespringof2004,hementionedtomehowRobesonkeptsendingroyaltiesofthesongfromtheUStothefamily,evenafterTian’sdeathin1968.AlthoughIvensandRobesonmayhavemetbefore, inEuropeor theSovietUnion,theirlinkagewastightenedthroughthemak-ingofSong of Riversduring theyearsof 1953and1954,asCharlesMusserputsit,anexpressionof‘utopianvisioninColdWardocumentaries.’29MusicandPoetryservedasenduringthemesinallthreear-tistic worlds: Ivens in his Song of the Rivers continued themusicaltraditioninhisearlyCitySymphonystylefilmmak-ing. The structure of the film is musical. Poetry provideda closely related model, and the sound track (or in silentfilms, the intertitles) was poetic in structure.The mode ofsongsconvenientlybroughtthesetwoimpulsestogether.30RobesonsingingSong of the Four RiversfortheUSPopularFrontmovementinthe1940sand50sforeshadowshissing-ingBrecht’slyricsinSong of the Rivers withanupdatedan-ti-ColdWartheme.TianHan’sidentityasayoungpoetandplaywrightwhoconstantly injectedsongs intohis‘spokendrama’prefiguredhiswritingoperaintheearly1950swhenSong of the Rivers wasbeingmadeinEastGermanybyIvensandhisgroup.‘MarchoftheVolunteers,’aidedbythepowerofmechani-cally reproduced records and films, had indeed becomethe embodiment of an internationalist political solidarityin face of rising fascism.The original film story and lyricsbyTianHan,thedocumentaryofJoris Ivensandthebilin-gualrecordofPaulRobeson,demonstratedacollectivein-ternational imagination of modern Chinese nationalism.PopularizedbyTianHan, Joris Ivens,PaulRobeson,amongothers,theChinesefightagainstJapanesefascismwerebutoneamongmanyinsuchacontext.Inthiscontext,‘Marchof the Volunteers’ became the anthem of a post-WWI in-ternational avant-garde whose ‘obsession with China,’after the baptism of the Spanish CivilWar, went hand inhand with their search for a political and artistic utopia.1 Joris Ivens, The 400 Million, 1939 (USA / 53.51 min / b-w / sound / 35

mm). ‘March of the Volunteers’ appeared from 20:20 to 21:20 for a full minute.

2 Joris Ivens went to China to film as a member of ‘History Today Inc., Motion Picture Production,’ a New York venture with Ernest Hem-ingway, Lillian Hellman, and Ivens himself as members of Board of Directors. Hans Wegner Archive, document no. 91, European Founda-tion Joris Ivens, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.

3 Renato Poggioli, The Theory of the Avant-garde, translated from Italian by Gerald FitzGerald, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1968; Matei Calinesku, Faces of Modernity: Avant-garde, Decadence, Kitsch, Indiana Uniersity Press, 1978; Peter Bürger, Theory of the Avant-garde, translated from German by Michael Shaw, University of Minnesota Press, 1983; Richard Murphy, Theorizing the Avant-Garde: Modernism, Expressionism, and the Problem of Postmodernity, Cambridge University Press, 1999.

4 André Stufkens, ‘Lust for Life: An Introduction to Ivens and the 20th Century,’ in Cinema Without Borders, European Foundation Joris Ivens, 2002, 14.

5 An E (Zhang Shiyuan, or ‘Miss Sonia’), based on whose articles Tian Han wrote his first article on Soviet film in 1930, had returned from Moscow to Shanghai in 1929. She worked as an underground Com-munist Party agent and played an important role in connecting Tian Han with the Soviet film scene. See Tian Han, ‘Lessons from the Development of Soviet Film Art and the Future of Film Movement in Our Country,’ in Nanguo yuekan (Nanguo Monthly), 2: 4 (20 July 1930); included in Tian Han quanji (Complete Works of Tian Han), 18: 74-95.

6 Hans Shoots, Living Dangerously: A Biography of Joris Ivens, Amsterdam University Press, 2000, 27-8.

7 Paul Robeson, Jr., The Undiscovered Paul Robeson, An Artist’s Journey, 1898-

1939, Wiley, 2001, 37-8.8 Tian Han, ‘On the Centenary of People’s Poet—Whitman,’ Shaonian

Zhongguo (Young China), vol. 1, no. 1 (July, 1919), 6-22.9 The Undiscovered Paul Robson, 143.10 ibid, 155.11 Paul Robeson, A Biography by Martin Duberman, New York: The New

Press, 1989, 172-175.12 Living Dangerously, 24.13 Tian Han, Lingguang (The Holy Light), Taiping yang (The Pacific Ocean),

vol. 2, no. 9, (January 1921), 5-28. 14 Living Dangerously, 25.15 André Stufkens, ‘The Song of Movement. Joris Ivens’ First Films and

the Cycle of the Avant-garde’, in Kees Bakker (ed. ) Joris Ivens and the Documentary Context, Amsterdam University Press, 1999, 54.

16 Tian Han, Muqin (Mother), based on Gorki’s novel, included in Tian Han daibiaozuo (Representative Works of Tian Han), Shanghai, San-tong shuju, 1941, vol. 1.

17 Given Tian Han’s background, it is possible to read wanzhong yixin as borrowed from and now used as an implicit polemic against the Japanese slogan that one hundred million Japanese beat as one heart (ichioku isshin).

18 Lee Pao-chen ed., China’s Patriots Sing, Chungking: The China Informa-tion Publishing Company, 1939.

19 Situ Huimin’s sons’ New Year card to Ivens, 1958, China. European Foundation Joris Ivens, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.

20 According to Ivens’ retrospective accounts written in 1945, he most possibly got hold of a copy of the Denton record in Hollywood. It was recorded by Ren Guang with the Denton chorus in 1935 in Shanghai. The availability of ‘March of the Volunteers’ in Hollywood in 1938 and its prominence in The 400 Million reminded us the rather unusual flow of mechanically reproduced sound bytes from China to the United States, which then came to represent a ‘real’ China in 1938 via a European filmmaker who connected China and Hollywood artists and activists through his filmmaking. See Joris Ivens, ‘How I Filmed The 400 Million,’ Joris Ivens and China, Beijing: New World Press, 1983, 29.

21 ‘World-famous photographer Ivens returns from Tai’erzhuang to Wuhan. Wuhan cultural groups welcome him. The anti-Japanese documentary will be spread to the world.’ Wenhui Daily (Shanghai), April 30, 1938, 3.

22 See Joris Ivens’ handwritten notes in Hankow (Hankou) in 1938 on sound effect recording for The 400 Million, Joris Ivens Archives, no. 238, European Foundation Joris Ivens, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.

23 For in-depth discussions on this topic, see Erez Manela, The Wilsonian Moment: Self-Determination and the International Origins of Anticolonial Nationalism, Oxford University Press, 2007.

24 Tian Han, Abixiniya de muqing (Mother of Abyssinia), in Limin zhiqian (Before Sunrise), Shanghai: Beixin shuju, 1937.

25 Robert Capa ascended to world fame through his expressive photo-graphs taken at the warfront during the Spanish Civil War. He was invited by Joris Ivens and went to China as a photographic assistant and a reporter for Life magazine in 1938. See Alex Kershaw, Blood and Champagne: The Life and Times of Robert Capa, New York: Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin’s Press, 2002; Paul Robeson went to Spain in 1938 in support of the International Brigades. He also appeared, together with Madame Sun Yat-Sen, in London in a Save China performance later the same year. See Martin Duberman, Paul Robeson: A Biography by Martin Duberman, New York and London: The New Press, 1989, 217-222.

26 Joris Ivens, The Camera and I, Berlin, Seven Seas Books, 1969, 158. The typescript of this book was drafted in the USA during the years 1943-1944.

27 Propaganda is an inadequate, if not incorrect, translation for the Chinese word xuanchuan, which literally means to announce and to spread. Xuanchuan dui, in the Chinese context, is often understood as a singing and dance troupe with a mission, often less connected with a negative connotation as in the English usage of a ‘propaganda team.’

28 Sergei Eisenstein, ‘Montage of Attractions,’ Daniel Gerould trans., included in Rebecca Schneider, Gabrielle H. Cody eds., Re: Direction: A Theoretical and Practical Guide, Routledge, 2002, 303-304.

29 Charles Musser, ‘Utopian Visions in Cold War Documentary: Joris Ivens, Paul Robeson and Song of the Rivers (1954),’ Cinémas : revue d’études cinématographiques / Cinémas: Journal of Film Studies, vol. 12, n° 3, 2002, 109-153.

30 ibid, 121

Liang Luo received her BA and MA in Chinese and Comparative Litera-

ture from Beijing Normal University in China and her PhD in East Asian

Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University in the United

States. She is an Assistant Professor of Chinese literature and culture

at the University of Kentucky in the United States, where she teachers

courses on Chinese language, literature, film, and popular culture. She

is exploring the relationship between international avant-garde and the

making of modern Chinese identities in her current book manuscript.

She lectured about Tian Han, Joris Ivens and Paul Robeson at Heidel-

berg University, Stockholm University and Shanghai University.

Painting Fight of China

against Japanese invader,

1938.

14 15October 2010 | 16October 2010 | 16

It was in the year of 1985 that I graduated from FudanUniversity inShanghaiandfoundajobofshootingdocu-mentaryinChinaCentralNewsreelandDocumentaryFilmStudio(CNDFS)—thebiggestdocumentaryfilmstudioofitskindintheworld.CNDFSprofessorstoldmethatthetalloldmanwasJorisIvens,aDutchmanlivinginFrance,whowasawell-knownadviserofCNDFS.ThefirstmoviecameraofYan’anMovieGroup,precursorofCNDFS,waspresentedbyJorisIvens.HewasanoldfriendofZhouEnlai,thefirstPrime Minister of New China. Many veteran cameramenandscenaristsofCNDFSwerehisfriends.Besides,Jorisdi-rectedmanycameramenaswellasmanystudentsofCND-FS.Allthismakesmefelldeeprespectforhim.Inthestudio’syard,IoftensawJoris,withasmile,talkinginalight-heartedandinterestingwaywithhisChinesefriends—myteachersanddoyen.Twoyearslater,IwatchedJoris’excitingfilm—A Tale of the Windinthestudio’sscreeningroomtwicewithoutstop.IthinkJoristellsusthestoryofhislifeinthis90minutes’longfilm,revealinghissincerity,andleadstheviewerstohisinnerworld.Joriscomestorealizethe world with true spirits and hopes people understandhim.Ifelthisindistinctlonelinessofhisinnerworldandhisindistinct grievances. But what impressed me most is hispouringdownpassionandtalentofapoet.I was totally convinced by this film although I had neverknown that a documentary could be shot like this. I holdthatisatruefilm.Filmdirectors,whobringyouomnibear-ingnewfeelingsofhearingandseeing,writeonthescreenjust likepoetswriteonpaper.Thepowerofrealitydrivesfilmdirectorstochangeimpossibilityintopossibility.Wind

isinvisibleandimpalpablebutitisshownbyJorisIveninhisfilm.ManyJoris’filmsarepreservedinCNDFS’vaults.Asourteach-ersrecommendedtousfresh-handswhowerelearningshoot-ingdocumentaryfilmsmustwatchsomeofthesefilms.Later in my work or life, many of my teachers, colleaguesand bosses mentioned Joris Ivens absently. They talkedabouttheircontactswithhim,cooperationwithhimandmoreaboutJoris’friendshipwithChinesepeopleaswellasthoselifelongunforgettabletechniquespassedonbyJoris—thegreatmasterofdocumentary.LiZexiang,formerviceeditor-in-chiefofCNDFSandidolintheheartsofthoseyoungpeoplewhowerelearningdocu-mentary shooting twenty years ago, is famous for his ac-complishments and achievements on documentary pho-tography. It is Li Zexiang who followed Joris to shoot thefilmseriesnamedHow Yugong Moved the Mountains.Hold-ingthecamera,hecanuseanon-stopfull-lengthshootingto finish all the subjects from outside to inside the room,and from under sunlight to lamplight. Moving figures incameralensarealwayschangingbuttheymustbefocused.Mise-en-scènemustbeaccomplishedatonesitting,soasto show clearly the characters and plot, and making easyforpostproductionbyscenarist-directorslater.Allofthesearefinishedbybodymovementsofthecameramanhimself.Atthismoment,thecameramanobserveswithoneofhiseyeshowthingsaregoingoninthesceneandtheothereyegazingattheviewfinder(frame)ofthecamera.Thecam-eramanstablyandorganicallyturnsaroundupperpartofthebodyandwaistwhilestablymovingonhisfeet.Healsousesonehandtocarrytheheavycamerawithhisshoulderagainstthecameratomakethemachineandshotsstable,and the other hand to change different scenes, depth offieldandadjustthefocus.Atthemeantime,thecamera-manhastobringmovingcharactersofshots(shootingob-jects) focused. If moving from outside with sunlight intoinsidewithlamplight,thecameramanwilldrawoffWrtten85colorfliterfromthefrontlens,andthenadjustapertureintoasaferangeforinsideexposureaccordingtoyourownexperienceandeyeballing.Li Zexiang owes the techniques of shooting documentarytoJorisIvens.PreviouslyCNDFScameramenpreferredpointshooting. This is because films were very expensive thenandfewfilmscanbeusedforshootingdocumentary.Itisimpossibletoshootdocumentarybyusingfull-lengthshotwithoutturningoffthemachineoranystop.Pointshoot-ingmeansthecameramanhastoturnoffthemachinein10 or 20 seconds and then turns on again after changingangleandcameralens.Thedisadvantageofpointshootingisthatthetracesofswingingshootingcanbeeasilyfoundindocumentaryfilms.Joris Iven taught Li Zexiang for nearly three years and of-tentoldhimabouthisownpracticalexperiencesofdocu-

Joris Ivens as I Know him A tall slim old man, with his silver hair fluttering in the breeze, was often accompanied by a red-haired short woman. The images of these two laowai (foreigners) who were very dazzling in Bei-jing twenty years ago still remain engraved in my mind. The elegant temperament of the old man corresponds with my ideal image of a great artist.

mentaryshootinginthepast60years.ItisfromJoristhatLiZexianglearnedtherealityofdocumentaryisfromnatureinstead of decoration or artistic approach of naturalism.Li Zexiang also learned the fact that synchronous soundwas applied to documentary films and that fine shootingconsistsofprofoundconsensusfortheme,tacitagreementand understanding coordination by director, cameraman,soundengineerandilluminationengineer.Yang Zhiju is a retired cameraman as well as a professorgrantedspecialallowanceoftheStateCouncilofChina.Tenyearsago,oneofmyfriendsfromtheMinistryofForestryflauntedthatscenesshotbyYangZhijucanbeeasilymadeintoafilmwithoutpost-editinginmachineryroom.Actu-allyIknewYangZhiju’sshootingskillverywell.HefollowedJoris Ivens for a long time shooting the series film How Yugong Moved the Mountains.Iamevenoverwhelmedwithadmirationforasceneshow-ing a train past by in the early morning light in A Tale of the Wind.ThisfamousscenewasshotbyBaiKunyiwhofol-lowedJorisIvensnotverylong.IhaverecommendedBaiKu-nyitoProfessorZhangTongdao,whomajorsindocumen-taryresearchingandcreatinginBeijingNormalUniversity,asthecameramaninProfessorZhangTongdao’sfirstdocu-mentary. Now Professor Zhang is one of the most impor-tantexpertsinresearchingJoris’documentaries.Guo Weijun is China’s first-grade illumination technician.Every cameraman would like to cooperated with Mr. GuobecausehehasgoodskillsmostofwhichwereimpartedbyJorisIvens.JorisIvensgavethreelecturesin1957toCNDFScreateper-sonnelandthendirectedthemtoshootthedocumentary—Early Springin1958.Lateron,Roaring of Six Hundred Mil-lion People was accomplished with the assistance of Jorisasanadviser.From1972to1975,JorisandhiswifeLoridanguided CNDFS’ staff members in China’s Beijing, Daqing,

Shanghai, Nanjing, Qingdao, Xinjiang and other placesshooting many people with different social backgrounds,suchasworkers,farmers,fishermen,professors,students,soldiers,salesmen,actors,handicraftsmenandsoon.Alloftheseshotswerefinallymadeintoadocumentaryfilm—How Yugong Moved the Mountainswhichwascomposedof12separatefilms. Its titlewasfromoneofChairmanMaoZedong’s famousessays.Duringtheperiodbetween1984and1988, JorisandLoridanfinishedhis lastdocumentaryfilm — A Tale of the Wind with the assistance of many ofCNDFSstaffmembers.ManyJoris’Chinesefriendsarestilllivingaroundme.Iof-tenmeetthemandtalkaboutthat‘flyingDutchman’.Joris’storycanbemadeintoabook.ActuallyitseemstomethatJorishasneverleftus.Icanfeelhisbreathandtouchhim.WhathehasbroughttoChinesepeopleisinvaluable.QianXiaozhang,formerCNDFSdirector,recollectsthefirsttimehemetJorisin1938inWuhan,China,‘Iwasdeeplytouchedbyhis(JorisIvens)passionatesincereemotionsandagree-able attitudes towards his Chinese fellows of the sameprofession in their primary meeting. It was the first timethatIsawaforeignerwhowassokindtoChinesepeople.JorisisveryunlikethoseforeignersIfrequentlymetintheBund,wholifteduptheirhornsandshoweddisdaintoourChinesepeople.Heisourrealfriend.’TodaythetechniquesimpartedbyJoristoChinesedocumentarydirectorsarestillwidelyappliedbymanydocumentaryworkingstaffinhun-dredsofTVstations.One day in April of the year 2008 in Paris, I visited Ivens-Loridan’soldapartmentclosetotheLouvreandsawatra-ditional Chinese painting of dragon hung on the wall ofthe sittingroom, the most vivid and beautiful one I hadeverseenbefore.ItseemstomethatJorisIvenshasalreadytransformedintoadragonflyinginthewind.IdedicatethisessaytoJorisIvenswithmyrespect.

Fu Hongxing, Director of

the China Film Archive, and

Marceline Loridan-Ivens, April

2008.

Huimin Situ On 21 May 2010 members of the Situ family and people from the Chinese film industry gathered at the China Film Archive to commemorate the centenary of Huimin Situ’s birthday. They honored the merits of this renowned film artist and movie technology expert. During his 50 years relationship with China Ivens befriended Huimin Situ, one of the longest and most intense friendships, which influenced Ivens film career in various ways. Huimin Situ studied in Japan and returned to China in the 1930’s, where he became involved in the film industry in revolutionary Shanghai. Thanks to Huimin Situ an independent film studio was created in 1934, which during its short existence produced four classic films supporting the fight against the Japanese invader. Huimin Situ himself directed Spirit of Freedom (1935). At the end of the 1950’s Ivens and Situ collaborated on several

documentaries, when the Dutchman was appointed advisor and teacher at the Central Newsreel and Documentary Film Studio in Beijing, at that time headed by Situ. In October 1964 Ivens proposed to him on a small note a film project entitled A Tale of the Wind, after Ivens met much trouble with the interrupted production of Pour le Mistral. Situ immediately agreed, but he had to wait almost 25 years before this idea ‘to film the impossible’ was realized. In the 1980’s Situ was vice-Minister of Culture and did his utmost to support this wind film of Ivens and Loridan-Ivens. After Huimin Situ´s death his sons continued the artistic family tradition: Zhaoguang Situ became a professor in sculptor and made two portraits of Ivens, Zhaodun Situ was a much respected filmmaker and film teacher. They are keeping warm memories about their father and his Dutch friend, who used to pay visits to the family.

• Photo left:

Ceremony at the CFA,

21 May 2010 © Sun

Xiangong, CFA

• Photo right:

Huimin Situ, in between his

daughter and Joris Ivens,

Beijing, 1958. © Eva Siao,

Coll EFJI.

byHongxingFu

16 17October 2010 | 16October 2010 | 16

Marceline Loridan-IvensOn 14 July, the national celebration day in France, theministry of culture and communication announced thisyearsappointmentsfor theprestigiousdecorationsof the‘Légiond’honneur’.MarcelineLoridan-Ivens(1928),whowasalready‘chevalier’since1992,nowwaspromotedto‘officierde la Légion d’honneur’. She received this award becauseofhermerits forfilmart,asafilmmakerandproducer. Inthe cultural field next to her among others architect JeanNouvel, actress Isabelle Adjani, director Emir Kusturica,musician/composerClaudeBolling,singerMireilleMatheuiand actress Charlotte Rampling received various gradesof the ‘Légion d’honneur’. Loridan-Ivens published herautobiography in 2008, is touring with her films and ispreparinganewfilm.

Tineke de VaalIn October 2010Tineke deVaal left the board of the IvensFoundationafterdecadesofdedicatedsupporttoimprovetheIvensarchives.Shestartedworkinginthefilmarchivalfield in the early 1960’s at the Netherlands Filmmuseum,restoring film prints. After her marriage with director Jande Vaal she became a close friend of Joris Ivens.Togetherwith Ivens and Bert Hogenkamp she created in 1978 thetravellingexhibition‘Joris Ivens,50yearsfilmmakerofthe

world’whichwaspresentedinelevencountriesaroundtheworld.Afterthedeathofherhusbandin2001shecontinuedtobealoyalsupporteroftheIvensarchive.SheproofedtobeanenormoussourceofinformationaboutfilmhistoryintheNetherlands.Theboardthankedherheartyforherlifetimeachievement.

Sabine Lenk

The successor of Tineke de Vaal as board member of theEuropean Foundation Joris Ivens is Dr. Sabine Lenk (1959),an international filmscholar and very much experiencedinthefilmarchivalworld.ShestudiedCinemaandTheaterat the universities of Erlangen and Paris III and workedat filmarchives in Paris, Rochester, Brussels, Amsterdam,Düsseldorf and Hilversum and at universities in France,Belgium and The Netherlands. At the moment she iscurator at the Cinémathèque de la ville de Luxembourg.She is co-founder and co-editor of KINTOP, for researchand publications devoted to early cinema and publishednumerous articles and books about film history, filmpreservationandearlycinema. Rain in AmsterdamIn the largeMusicTheater inAmsterdam,thecrèmede lacrèmeoftheinternationalhistoryscientistsweretreatedtoanensembleonstagedressed inyellowbootsand typicalDutch sou’wester rain caps. During the official openingceremony of the 21th International Congress of HistoricalSciences they played new music composed by Huub deVriend to accompany the silent movie Regen (Rain, 1929,JorisIvens/MannusFranken).WhiletherainwaspouringdownonscreenmusiciansplayedonahugeRainMachine.Topresentthehistoricalcontexttothe1.700historiansthefilmalsowasshownmute.

Eye and the CityThe educational project ‘eyeandthecity’ created by theEuropeanFoundationJorisIvenswantstoinspirestudentsatschooltostudy‘cityphotography’fromthe19thCenturyuptotodayandmakecityphotosthemselvesonahigherlevel.This project already started three years ago, and includedanexhibitionaboutWilhelmIvens(JorisIvens’grandfather),averymuchappreciatedoutdoorexhibitiononpanelsand

this interactive website. Since last June the first schoolsstarted to work with the website ‘eyeandthecity’, touredalongthestreetswiththeircameras,madetheassignmentsanduploadedtheirpicturesonthiswebsite.Thefirstresultsproofthatstudentsmakecityphotosofahigherquality.

50 years Mali, 50 years ‘Demain à Nanguila’InMay1960JorisIvensfilmedinMaliDemain à Nanguila.Altoughthis isaratherunknownIvensfilm, inMali itwasa big success. In a screening van the film prints touredaroundthecountry.Formanypeopleinthevillagesitwasthefirsttimetheycouldeverseefilmonabigscreen.Withthisfilmthat isrecognizedasanAfricanfilminsteadofawesternfilmthenationalfilmcultureofMalistartedfromscratch.Itmotivatedthenewgovernmenttoputupafilm

productioncompany.ThisyearMali,alongwithNigeriaand15 other African countries, commemorates half a centuryofindependenceandfreedomfromcolonialrule.InSpain,France,BelgiumandtheNetherlandsscreeningsofthefilmwereheld.ForthisoccasiontheEuropeanFoundationJorisIvensdigitizedthefilmandprovidedsubtitles.

Charley Toorop and Joris IvensFrom19Februaryuntil9May2010,theMuseumforMo-dernArtinParisexhibitedthefirstretrospectiveoftheoeuvreofDutchpainterCharleyToorop(1891-1955).Nextto85ofherpaintings,alsoworksofotherartistswereincluded,amongthemCharleyToorop’sfatherJanToorop,andfriendsandfellowartistssuchasPietMondriaan,Ger-ritRietveld,PykeKoch,FernandLégerandJorisIvens.EarlyIvensfilms,e.g.Etudes de mouvements à Paris(1927)andThe Bridge(1928)werescreenedcontinuouslyduringthecourseoftheexhibition.From1908onwardsrelationshipsbetweentheIvensandTooropfamilyweredeveloped.

Personel officeInMarch2010RobComanslefttheofficeafterhistermwasfinished.InhisplaceHilkeLekkerkerkerstartedlistingarchivesfromtheIvensArchivalcollections.ShestudiedCinemaandEnglish.AnneJaspersfinishedlistingof5.000clippings.Notonlythetitles,sourcesandthemesoftheclippingswerelisted,butalsoqueriestofacilitateresear-chersinfindingveryfasttherequestedtexts.MerelGeelenfinishedlistingtheJandeVaalcollection.

Retrospectives around the worldLast year saw Ivens retrospectives with many films inLeipzig(Germany),NewCaledonia,ThessalonikiandAthens(Greece), Shanghai (China), Maputo (Mosambique), Lisbon(Portugal) and Seville (Spain). In 2011 requests for largeretrospectives already are received from Equador, MexicoandValparaiso.Seewww.ivens.nl/agenda

the foundation

update

• Marceline Loridan-Ivens

in Shanghai. Photo © Liu

Lung Shang

• Jan de Vaal, Joris Ivens

and Tineke de Vaal, 1985.

Photo © Henk de Smidt

• Live music performance and

screening of Rain at the

International Congress of

Historical Sciences, August

24. Photo © Henk Wals

• Poster Festival de Cine

Africano de Tarifa, Spain

• The Best DVD Award 2009 Il

Cinema Ritrovato

• Charley Toorop, Self

Portrait with Children,

1927 oil on canvas, Coll.

Groninger Museum.

18 19October 2010 | 16October 2010 | 16

AfterhisexperienceasavolunteerinItalyduringWorldWarI,ErnestHemingwayhaddeclaredthathewoulddecline‘anyfurtherenlistment’.However,whentheCivilWarbrokeoutinSpain,hedecidedtocommithimselfinordertodefenda democracy that was threatened by fascism, embodiedby General Franco. Arrived in March 1937 in Madrid,Hemingwaywouldcontributetotheprojectofmakingananti-fascistfilmdirectedbyJorisIvens,The Spanish Earth,aprojectlaunchedbyContemporaryHistorians,whichunitedvariousAmericanintellectualsasHemingwayhimself,JohnDosPassos,LillianHellman,FredricMarch,etc.Living and working at the Hotel Florida, in the centre ofMadrid, shelled by the guns of the francoist forces andbombedbytheGermanaviation,HemingwayexperiencedarealexcitementfacingdangerandwentbeyondthemereroleofanewspapermanactingasanadviseramongLoyalistofficers, or even firing a machine-gun in the frontline,on April 10th 1937. The military aspect of the conflict wasobviously fascinating Hemingway much more than thesocial issues taken up by the film. Dos Passos, who wasinitiallysupposedtowritethecommentary,madelocations

inthevillageofFuentidueñadeTajo,wherethefilmstartsandends,andhewouldprobablyhavestressedonthissidebutadisagreementwithHemingwayendedupwiththeircooperation and Dos Passos left for France at the end ofApril 1937.His translator toSpanish, JoséRobles,hadbeenarrestedandverylikelyshotbyStalinists,butHemingwaywas quite displeased by Dos Passos’ enquiries to findoutwhathadhappened tohis friend,asheseemed tobeconvincedthatRobleswasanagentofthefifthcolumn.The film, the title of which, The Spanish Earth, turns thepublicontothatmatterhowever,onlydedicatesathirdpartoftherunningtimetotheagriculturalquestionoftheearth,oneoftheessentialscausesofthewar,andthetwothirdsleftdealwiththemilitaryachievementsoftheRepublictogainground,aswellasthehumanitarianconsequencesoftheshellingofMadrid.ThelinkbetweenthesetwopointsofviewismadebythecharacterofJulián,ayoungcountrymanwho enlists to defend his land, and comes back on leaveto instruct future recruits. Hemingway’s commentary,essentiallyfocusedonthearmedconflict,contemplatestheworkofthecountrymenasfitintoawareconomyandless

Ivens, Hemingway and The Spanish Earth

Aviacíon! Aviacíon’.The Interpretation of A New Warscape in The Spanish Earth and ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’

thanintoahistoricalprocessofclaiminglandbyapeopledespoiltbycenturiesof landownersdomination,ananglethat the very President Roosevelt suggested should bedevelopedafterbeingshown thefilmat theWhiteHouseonJuly8th1937.The weight of historical circumstances and the relativerarityofmovingimagesofthatperiodturnedThe Spanish Earth into an object of historical study and one tendsto see itonlyasadocument in therough when ithasanaestheticdimensionabsolutelygripping,inthecontinuityof Joris Ivens’ coherent works which include films with astrong social impact as Komsomol or Borinage, but alsopure marvels as The Bridge, Rain, Study of Movements orNew Earth.Withthepassingoftime,thesefilmsseemtobeprecursorsofThe Spanish Earth,forthedynamicimagesoftruckswhichcrosstheshotthiswayandthat,theworkonthelinesorthemovementsofthecrowd,interpolatedwithverysuggestiveclose-ups,recallthepreviousfilmsoftheDutchdocumentary maker. Joris Ivens and his cameraman JohnFernoachievedanunequalledworkandtheirimageswereexploitedhundredsoftimesinsubsequentdocumentariesfocusedontheCivilWar.SomelackofknowledgeofHispanicculturalsubtletiesledtochooseasmusicsardanas typicalof Catalonia, unique element that creates discrepancy inthereceptionofthefilmbyacertainpublic.Inspiteofthe

remarkable work of Ivens and Ferno, Hemingway coveredhimself in glory with The Spanish Earth because he wasalreadyveryfamousandhisdeepdramaticvoicesayinganunderstatedcommentarygavetheimpressionthathewastheauthorofthefilmassomenewspaperswroteit.His stay in Spain and participation in the making of The Spanish Earth meant for Hemingway a crucial period oftransitioninhislifeasawriter.Thisnewexperienceofwar,the persons he met and his affair with Martha GellhornaswellasthediscoveryofJorisIvens’pointofviewwouldnourishhissubsequentworks,inparticularthewritingofthemasterpieceFor Whom The Bell Tolls,hisfirstgreatnovelsince A Farewell To Arms, but also his dispatches as a warcorrespondent,shortstoriesandhisuniqueplay,The Fifth Column.

‘They move like no thing that has ever been. They movelikemechanizeddoom’(For Whom the Bell Tolls97).In1921an Italian general and military theorist, Giulio Douhet,predicted that recent advances in aeronautics wouldeventuallycreateanominousnewwarscape.

Nothing man can do on the surface of the earthcan interfere with a plane in flight . . . .No longer can areas exist in which life can be lived in safety and tranquility, nor can the battlefield any longer be limited to actual combatants. . . There will be no distinction any longer between soldiers and civilians. (9-10)

JustasDouhetanticipated,saturationbombingofcivilianpopulations from the air emerged as a new and horrificformofmodernwarfareduringtheSpanishCivilWar(1936-39).Duringthethreeyearsofthisbloodyconflict,whichtookthe lives of nearly 500,000, over 10,000 Spanish civilianswerekilled inaerialbombingraids--courtesyof airpowerprovidedtoFrancobyHitlerandMussolini.Thevisualandemotionalrealityofthisnewwarscapewascapturedinphotojournalism,newsreels,posters,paintings,films, and even children’s drawings, from which hauntingthemes and compelling iconographic images emerge:panickedandfleeingwomenandchildren;faces,distortedwithfear,lookingskyward;skiesdarkenedwithmultitudesofenemyplanes;homesandcitiesreducedtorubble;andcasualtiesofallages.During the filming of ‘The Spanish Earth,’ Joris Ivens andErnestHemingwaywitnessedfirsthandthisterrordeliveredbyairandthephysicalandpsychologicalimpactitwreakedupontheSpanishpeopleandbothsharedacommitmenttobearwitnesstothetragedy.IvensandHemingwaydedicatedpartof‘TheSpanishEarth’ to this themeandHemingway

intensified his attention in For Whom the Bell Tolls wherethe fear of planes becomes a major preoccupation of themaincharactersthroughoutthenovel.InwhatSidneyMeyersandJayLeydadeemed‘thegreatestsingle section of Spanish Earth’ (166) the sound of fallingbombs splits the air accompanied with a child’s voice

Ivens & Hemingway in Spain 14th

Hemingway Conference in Lausanne

• top: Filmposter The

Spanish Earth in Madrid

• Stacey Guill during her

lecture at the Conference.

• Programme flyer The

Spanish Earth, with the

image of the ´mechanized

doom´ Coll. JIA - EFJI

Ernest Hemingway and Joris

Ivens during the shooting of

The Spanish Earth, April

1937. Coll. Joris Ivens Archives.

Since a long time the Hemingway Society is or-ganizing biannual gatherings of scholars with rigorous academic sessions and social events. From 25 June till 3 July the 14th Hemingway Con-ference took place at the beautiful campus of the University of Lausanne, with a panoramic view on the lake. The central theme of the conference ‘Hemingway’s extreme geographies’ was very appropriate to discuss Hemingways stay in Spain during the Civil War in 1937-1939. Ivens’documen-tary The Spanish Earth inspired five lecturers to focus on Hemingway and Ivens and the artworks deriving from the Spanish Civil War. Although before several scholars did research after this subject, it’s only at this conference that for the first time the importance of The Spanish Earth for Hemingways artistic output has been tho-roughly researched and discussed. Nicolas Blayo, Suzanne Clark, Stacey Guill, Dan Miller and Alex Vernon wrote summaries of their contributions to the conference.

NicolasBlayo

StaceyGuill

Nicolas Blayo is lecturer (PRCE) at the Université Paul Verlaine-Metz

(France). He is preparing a doctoral thesis under the supervision of Jean-

Claude Seguin, about fictionalisation of History in the Spanish Cinema

of the Democracy. His first contribution, « L’histoire, entre nostalgie et

mémoire, dans le cinéma de Fernando Trueba », was published in Shang-

hai, entre promesse et sortilège (Lyon, Le Grimh, 2004), and the last one in

CinémAction n°130, Mémoire du cinéma espagnol (1975-2007) (Paris, Corlet,

2009). He has also written various papers in France, Europe and New

Zealand, already published or to be published, about Spanish historical

cinema of the three last decades.

20 21October 2010 | 16October 2010 | 16

Young Jasper Wood, Photo

courtesy Denis Wood

• Cover book ´The Spanish

Earth´, text by Hemingway.

• Spread of LIFE magazine

with Robert Capa´s

wellknown photo of ´The

Fallen Soldier´ and behind

it the pages of The Spanish

Earth, with subtitles by

Hemingway.

• Robert Capa, Death in the

making, photobook (1938)

• Programme flyer The

Spanish Earth, 1937. Coll

JIA/EFJI.

• Photoseries of the 14th

Hemingway Conference in

Lausanne. In the middle:

James Meredith, president

of the Hemingway Society.

Photos © Dan Miller.

crying out‘Aviación! Aviación!’ Hemingway’s commentaryisinterjected:

Before, death came when you were old and sick, but now it comes to all in this village. High in the sky in shining silver it comes to all who have no place to run, no place to hide. (‘The Spanish Earth’)

Discussingtheeditingofthebombingsceneinthefilm,Ivensexplainedhowheendeavoredtorecreatethestagesof thepsychologicaltraumaevokedbythisterrorfromtheskies:Inthe14shotsthatcomposethecoreofthesequenceofthebombingofthevillage,theeditingfollowsanemotion-idealine:tensionbeforethebombing;thethreat;thefright;theexplosion;thedestruction;thehorrorofnotknowingwhatit’sallabout;therunningaroundofthewomen;thestartofactivity, searchingforvictims; theslighthappinessofababy;thenthehorrorofcorpsesandtheaccusationagainsttheenemy.(Camera 127-8)Withthesimplestofstrokes,theimagesintheplaybillforthepremierofthefilminNewYorkCityalsodemonstratedthefilm’sengagementwiththecollectiveartistictestimonyto this historic moment: shark-like silhouettes of theominousplanesandahelplesswomanandchildwhohave,inHemingway’swords,‘noplacetorun,noplacetohide.’InFor Whom the Bell Tolls(1940),Hemingwaydemonstrateshiscontinuingconcernwiththishorrendousnewwartacticby the fact that there are over 100 references to planesthroughoutthenovel,and,moreover,everymajorcharacter

iteratesanintensefearofthem.The ability of the bombers to strike randomly and at will,virtually unimpeded, evokes an intense paranoia anduncontrollablefearamongtheguerillaband.Forexample,Pablo remarks, ‘If they know we are here and hunt forus with planes, they will find us.’ The peasant Anselmoconfesses‘Idonot think that Icouldcontrolmyselfunderthebombardmentoftheplanes.’Primitivodescribesthemas‘badomens,’andRafaelexclaims:‘Theygivemeahorror.’Young Mariacanonlysaythattheplaneslooklike‘death.’Even Pilar, the embodiment of strength, courage, andsteady nerves admits:‘For each one there is something. . .Formeitisthose[planes].’Raphaelreactingtoa‘skyfullofairplanes’predictsthattheyhavethepowerto‘killusbacktoourgrandfathersandforwardtoourunborngrandsonsincludingallcats,goats,andbedbugs.’Between1936and1939,Spainbecamethetestinggroundforabestialnewwartactic--massivebombingsofciviliansforthepurposeofdemoralizinganenemy.Theendlesshorrorsmade possible by the development of this ‘mechanizeddoom’ would soon reveal itself to citizens of London,Dresden,andotherEuropeancitiesand,amereeightyearsafterthebombingofGuernica--Hiroshima.Thisnewlandscapeofwargeneratedextraordinarypowerfuland poignant artwork as countless artists, including JorisIvens and Ernest Hemingway, attempted to interpret thephysical,emotional,andpsychological impactofwhattheworldwouldsoonexperienceas‘totalwar.’

Work Cited

Douhet, Giulio. The Command of the Air (1921). Tr. Dino Ferrari. Ed. Joseph Patrick Harahan and Richard H. Kohn. Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama, 1942.Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom the Bell Tolls. New York:Simon, 199.narr. ‘The Spanish Earth.’ Dir. Joris Ivens. Photo.John Ferno. Music arrang. Marc Blitzstein and VirgilThompson. Contemporary Historians, 1937.Ivens, Joris. The Camera and I. New York: International,1969.Myers, Sidney and Jay Leyda. ‘Joris Ivens: Artist in Documentary.’ The Documentary Tradition 2nd Edition,Ed. Lewis Jacobs. New York: Norton, 1979 158-66.

In March 1938, Rollin Dart wrote to Ernest HemingwayaskinghimwhathethoughtofaproposalbyJasperWoodtopublishabookversionofThe Spanish Earth,thefilmdirectedby Joris Ivensfor thesponsoringentityTheContemporaryHistorians,Inc.Dart was a Canadian aviator serving in the SpanishRepublicaninfantrywhomHemingwaymetinSpainandforafewmonthspermittedtohandlehisaffairsinNewYork,suchasfindingatheatricalproducerforThe Fifth ColumnandworkingonthemovierightstoTo Have and Have Not.Heturnedouttobemoretroublethanhewasworth,andafter three months an ireful Hemingway let him go. DartreturnedtoSpain.JasperWoodwasaseventeen-yearoldkidfromCleveland,Ohio. Seeing The Spanish Earth in early 1938 inspired himtowriteHemingwayforpermissiontoputtogetherabookversion. Initially Dart served as the go-between. He bearssome fault for the book’s problems. The commentary heprovideddidnotmatchthefinalrecordedcommentary,andwhileWoodwantedandHemingwayexpectedphotographicstillstoaccompanythetext,Dartfailedtosendpublishablephotographs.

When Hemingway saw the published book, one of hischiefcomplaintswastheabsenceofthephotographs.Thatcomplaint reveals what Hemingway potentially imaginedforthebook.Overayearearlier,inlateMay1937,hisfellowContemporary Historian Archibald MacLeish exchangedseveralletterswithLouisP.BirkatModernAgeBooksonthesubjectofapossibleshortbookaboutthewartobewrittenby Hemingway and to consist largely of photographs.Birk was the editor working to bring out the book of LuisQuintanilla’s war sketches, eventually published as All the Brave; his company sided with the Republic. Birk firstsuggested a book of fifty to sixty thousand words andthirty-fivetosixtypictures,withahealthyfirstrunofeightythousand paper and twenty thousand cloth copies to beseriously promoted, promising the most fanfare of anyHemingwaybook.ModernAgealsowantedtopublishthebookasquicklyaspossible.MacLeishwroteback,airinghissuppositionthatHemingwaywouldnotbeinterestedinabookofthatwordcount.Birkreplied by dropping the minimum to thirty-five or forty-thousandwords.Anythingshorterwouldnotappealtothepublic as a full book (an argument he had already madewith the fifty-thousand minimum length). Birk appealeddirectly to Hemingway, promising mass distribution andaskingafteranyplansheandIvensmighthaveforabookofphotographsdesignedaccordingto thefilm.ButMacLeishadvised Hemingway to decline the offer, and instead ofhaving to write another forty or fifty thousand words fora Modern Age Books edition, publish a few photos in Lifemagazinewithverylimitedtext.Hemingwaysettledforthefour-pagespreadinLifewitheighteenimagesfromthefilmandhisaccompanyingcaptions.‘TheWarinSpainMakesaMovie’appearedintheJuly12,1937issueinconjunctionwiththefilm’sinitialscreenings.Wood’s proposition for a book combining film stills andthe commentary promised what neither of these earlieropportunities did. It’s quite possible that Hemingwayharbored a distinct and high ambition for a book versionofthefilm.Highbrowcircleshadbegunnotonlytoseethephotographic image as significantly complementing thewrittenword,butthewordassignificantlyandartisticallycomplementingtheimage.Throughoutthe1930s,magazinessuchasMacLeish’sownFortuneranphoto-essaysthatgaveequal weight to image and word, and several book-lengthphoto-essays—whatWilliamStott’sexcellentDocumentary Expression and Thirties Americacallsdocumentarybooks—alsobegantoappear.MacLeishinfactpublishedoneofhisown,Land of the Free,in1938.ForStott,thistrendcoalescedin November 1937 with Erskine Caldwell and MargaretBourke-White’s You Have Seen Their Faces, a financial andcriticalsuccesshailedbyreviewsas‘anewgenre’and‘anewart.’1HadsuchabookversionofThe Spanish EarthappearedinJuly,HemingwaymighthavebeatCaldwellandBourke-

Whitetothisbraggingright.As Stott observes, most documentary books ‘had a socialpurpose,’ and two ‘were unabashed propaganda: FredrickBarber’sThe Horror of It: Camera Records of War’s Gruesome Glories(1932),andLaurenceStallings’The First World War: A Photographic History(1933),’2thelatterofwhichHemingwayownedinKeyWest.Bothwereaboutwar,aswouldbeRobertCapa’s propagandistic documentary book on the SpanishCivilWar,Death in the Making(1938).JayAllentranslatedandprovidedtheprefacetoCapa’sbook,whichincludedphotosbyGerdaTaro,andservedasCapa’sunstatedmemorialandtribute to her. Indeed Hemingway perhaps had in mindphotos by Capa and Taro. Taro (perhaps accompanied byCapa) might have visted the filming site at Fuenteduena,andtheyhadalargecollectionofcombatshotsthatwouldhaveaddedtothefilmstillsandphotographstakenbyIvensandJohnFerno.

Ayearbeforehisowndocumentarybookappeared,Stallingswrote this review: ‘Certain books…remain forever out ofliterary categories and become, according to the depthof originality in the writer, a work unto themselves.Theirinfluenceisnottobecalculated.Soitiswith‘DeathintheAfternoon.’’3 Published in 1932, Hemingway’s Death in the Afternoon used eighty-one photographs, but that number

Stacey Guill is a PhD in Literature and Criticism at Indiana University

of Pennsylvania. She presented papers on Ernest Hemingway at four

Hemingway Conferences (Stresa, 2002; Key West, 2004; Ronda, 2006 and

Lausanne, 2010). Her dissertation is entitled ‘Hemingway and The Spa-

nish Earth : Art, Politics and War (2007). She published an article about

Hemingway, Picasso and Ivens in the ‘Ivens Magazine’ 12, 2006

The Spanish Earth makes a Book

AlexVernon

22 23October 2010 | 16October 2010 | 16

The Aesthetic of Risk: Joris Ivens, Ernest Hemingway, and The Spanish Earth

Hislongcommitmentsagainstwaraswellashiscommit-mentstotellingthetruthinhiswritingmakequestionableanyclaimthatErnestHemingwaywasseducedintobecom-ing a propagandist for the Soviet Union when he workedonThe Spanish Earth.WhatheshareswithdirectorJorisIv-ensandwhatappearsasthecentralactofthefilmtheyaremaking is their deep affection for those whose faces andgesturesaresolovinglyfeaturedinthefilm,aswellastheirconvictionthatjusticeisonthesideoftheSpanishpeople.The beloved images and the simple dignity of the wordsHemingwayusestoaccompanythemmaketheconnectionbetweentheeverydayworkofavillageandofthebuildingofanirrigationditchandtheeverydayworkofthewarasthepeopleuntrainedinweaponsturnfromtheirtradetotheirdefense.InThe Spanish Earthweseethattellingsuchastoryalsode-pendsuponriskingone’slife,asthetwoartistsandIvens’sphotographer, John Ferno, filmed under fire, sharing theartillerybombardmentwiththepeopleofMadrid,thebul-letshittingthewallsaroundthemoftheruinedapartmentlookingoverCampodeBelloandtheUniversityCitywheretheRebeltroopsheldout.Hemingwaywrotehis ‘Dispatches’about theSpanishwarforNANAfromthefrontwherethefilmwasbeingmade.The stories are certainly meant to be journalistic reports,althoughtheydidnotgetthefeaturedpublicationHeming-wayhopedfor,buttheirexistenceandtheirstyletestifiestothesituationoffilmingwithIvens,onthefrontlines,wheretheresourcesofwritingandoffilmingaretested,andthatsenseofwriting/filmingunderfirelendsaperspectivethatmakesjudgments.Just as we were congratulating ourselves on the splendidobservation post and the non-existent danger, a bulletsmacked against the corner of a brick wall beside Iven’shead.Thinkingitwasastray,wemovedoveralittleandasIwatchedtheactionwiththeglasses,shadingthemcare-fully,anothercamebymyhead...JoristhoughtthatFernohadleftthecameraatourfirstpost,andasIwentbackforitabulletwhackedintothewallabove.Icrawledbackonmyhandsandkneesandanotherbulletcamebyas I crossedtheexposedcorner.1

IvenstellsPeterDavisthatHemingwaywasimportantly in-volvedwiththespontaneityofthefilmmaking,notonlylaterwhenhewrotethecommentary:YouknowthatHemingway...hadanadvantageontheoth-erjournalists... Icouldgetmuchclosertothefront,eventothe first lines, which the other correspondents couldn’t, soHemingwaylikedtogowithus,andweusedhimverywell,becausehewasstrong,hetookthecameras,alsohelpedus,andreallywasagoodfriendandhelpfulatthatmoment.Youknow,somethingaboutthestory-linealsoIhadtoaskhim.2

Hemingwaygoesalongwiththefilmcrewandcarriestheheavy cameras and consults with Ivens as they go aboutconstructing the story line. They are writing the film astheygoatthispoint.TheyarenotabletofollowthescriptthatIvenshadplannedoutearlierwithArchibaldMacLeish,andwhiletheshootinginthevillagehadtakenplaceear-lier,moreorlessaccordingtoplan,whatIvensfindsisthathethenhastolettheeventsofthebattledeterminewhathefilms--theyhavetotellthestoryonthespot,heandHem-ingwayalike,adaptingtoevents.Thatis,inspiteofnothavingtheequipmentforit,Ivensisforced intoakindofdirectcinemainmakingthispartofthefilm,somethirtyyearsbeforehewillbeablein1967tousethesynchronoussoundtechniquesandlightercameraequipmentofdirectcinematofilmThe Seventeenth ParallelinVietnam.3HeisfilmingasRobertCapa,withthelightercamera, is able to film his still photographs of the battle.WhenBillNichols4comparesthedogmatismofLeniRiefen-stahl’scamerawork inTriumph of the Will tothisfilm,henoteshersignificantlackofspontaneityinadditiontothenewsreel-likestyleofthefascistfilm.Ivensopenshisfilm-ingtotheinfluenceoftheunexpectedsituation.Therefore one must insist on the significance of risk; notonly the danger of the war zone, but also the risk of notplanninghowthefilmingwillgo,thelossofcontrolbythefilmmakers. The shared risk created a bond between thefilmmakerandthewriter,bothofwhommeasuredthesig-nificanceoftheirworkbythetruthfulnesssuchextremitywasabletocapture,infilm,andinwords.5

Dan Miller is Associate Professor at the University of Oregon. He is the

founder of the Long Island Documentary Project and the Oregon Do-

cumentary Project. He is an award-winning documentary film director

and has guided students in producing award-winning documentaries

for public and commercial broadcast. He is a featured contributor to

the book ‘Inventing Vietnam’.

Suzanne Clark is Professor in English Literature at the University of

Oregon. She published articles and books on women in 20th century

literature like Julia Kristeva, on Hemingway, Cold war and the Spanish

Civil War. In 2000 her book ‘Cold Warriors: Manliness on Trial in the

Rhetoric of the West’ was published (Southern Illinois University Press)

and in 1991 ‘Sentimental Modernism: Women Writers and the Revolu-

tion of the Word. (Indiana University Press).

DanielMillerandSuzanneClark

Alex Vernon is assistant professor of English and chair of American

Studies at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas. Editor of Arms and

the Self: War, the Military and Autobiographical Writing (Kent State

University Press, 2005), author of Most succinctly Bred (2006), Soldiers

Once and Still: Ernest Hemingway, James Salter, and Tim O’Brien (2004)

and On Tarzan (2008). His book about Hemingway and The Spanish

Civil war will be published in Spring 2011.

was a compromise, down from 200. Words, Hemingwayknew, were inadequate. Still, Death might have promptedStallings’ documentary book and can be seen to havecontributed to the rise of the documentary photo-essaybook.

Without photographs, Wood employed a local illustrator,Frederick K. Russell, to provide graphic accompaniment.JasperfoundmodelsforRussellinalocalleftistbookstore.A black-and-white woodcut-like illustration dominatesthe title page for each reel and corresponds to its focus.A bearded soldier clutches a rifle for Reel Two, womenandoldermenlineupforfoodonavillagestreetforReelFour, a couple embrace as the man begins to turn awayto head to battle for Reel Five, and soldiers battle behinda wood barricade for a small arched stone bridge for Reel

Six.ThepictureforReelThree,ofalargeclenchedfistraisedagainst three airborne planes above, appears in a slightlymodified form on the cover and communicates the film’sthematicschemepittingthenatural,earth-basedRepublicagainst thehierarchical, technophilic fascists. Italso leadsinto the image of ‘the clenched fist of Republican Spain’raisedbythoseattendingtheSalledeGoyameeting,whereRepublicanleadersaddressedelectedrepresentativesfrommilitary units. A final illustration, opposite the final text,completesthestoryvisually:fromasmalltreewitheringinthesunatReelOnetothisillustrationofatall,healthytreestandingbesideanirrigationditch.For all ofWood’s missteps in his seven-page introduction,includingfailingtoacknowledgeIvens’srolesufficientlyforHemingway,wecanstill laudhisgumptionandrecognizethe missteps as those of an ambitious teenager oversureofhistalentandwritinghimselfbetweenthesamecoversashisidol.Weshouldalsoadmirehisspeed,fromreceivingpermissionafterMarch14andpublishingitonJune15.ByearlyNovember,accordingtoJasper,thebookwasturningaprofitandheexpectedtorunoutbyChristmas.And the book Hemingway wanted has been exiled to ourimaginations.

AdaptedwithpermissionfromAlexVernon,Hemingway’s Second War: Bearing Witness to the Spanish Civil War,forthcomingfromtheUniversitiyofIowaPress.

1 Sigmund Aaron Lavine and Malcolm Cowley quoted in Stott, 211.2 Stott, 213.3 Quoted in Reynolds, Hemingway: The 1930s, 101.

1 Ernest Hemingway, ‘Dispatches.’ 25.2 From transcript of a June 4, 1981 interview with Peter Davis.3 Marceline Loridan-Ivens, whom Ivens married in the sixties and who

worked with him on his films after that, argues that Ivens’s work should be seen in the context not of ideology but of the history of wars of liberation. She told us that she did the sound work and techniques of direct cinema with Ivens, beginning with the 1967 17th Parallel. She told us how she and Ivens struggled to record directly, and to resist staged performances such as they encountered later in China. But Ivens first came to her attention when she saw a screening in the 1950s of The Spanish Earth. And she notes that of course as in that film there is already something of the ideal of a direct cinema in the im-ages of earlier Ivens films, as well as his enduring wariness about em-bracing the unplanned excesses of direct cinema. Interview recorded December 8, 2009 in Paris by Daniel Miller and Suzanne Clark.

4 Bill Nichols, Introduction to Documentary, 2001 Bloomington, p. 108.5 Marcelline Loridan-Ivens in fact attributes the strength of her relation-

ship with Ivens, joining work and marriage, to the fact that they had the same capacity to take risks. It was she who wanted to film in the little village on the 17e parallel where the bombs fell. She tells the story of being denied permission to go there because it was too dan-gerous, and she looked like a Parisian. At that moment she encoun-tered Ho Chi Minh. ‘All of a sudden this old gentleman with a beard arrived and sat down next to us--they were in the process of talking to the prime minister, Phan Ban Dung--and he saw her number, and he said to her: ‘You were in Auschwitz, little one, and they didn’t burn you there?’ ‘You can do what you wish in my country.’ Interview, Paris, December 8, 2009.

• Robert Capa, Death in the

making, photobook (1938)

• Programme flyer The

Spanish Earth, 1937. Coll

JIA/EFJI.

Photoseries of the 14th

Hemingway Conference in

Lausanne. In the middle:

James Meredith, president of

the Hemingway Society.

Photos © Dan Miller.

24 25October 2010 | 16October 2010 | 16

Bryan Martin mc Cormackwhen Joris Ivens meets Hraesvelgr

Joris Ivens and contemporary ArtOnSaturdayMay29FrenchMinisterofCulture,FrédericMitterrand,revealeda12metershighoutdoorsculptureaboutJorisIvens,createdbyIrishartistBryanMcCormack.TheceremonyintheParcdeSaintCloudwasattendedbyMarcelineLoridan-Ivens.Thetitleofthemovingstatue´WhenJorisIvensmeetsHraesvelgr´referstoIvens´filmsandthewindgiantfromNorwegianmythology.

The complete ´Ivens – Vidor´ polyptych, made by Anthony Freestone

(see also Ivens Magazine 14/15, p.11) Photo © Anthony Freestone

Photo of sculpture

© Bryan Mc Cormick; Photos

ceremony © Djamilla Cochran.

Bryan McCormack,

‘When Joris Ivens meets Hraesvelgr’,

Parc de Saint-Cloud, Paris

Copyright artist.

26 27October 2010 | 16October 2010 | 16

I came to the DEFA Studio for Documentary Films in 1969, and I can still see Huisken s tall figure clearly in my mind: a ‘Schlaks’ of a man as they say in Berlin, a mixture of a nobleman and a rascal, with a touch of mockery in the corners of his eyes and mouth. They said he could drink anybody under the table, but at the same time he could draw even with a director general as well. He loved dis-cussions, but without being a know-all, and he would always have a joke to tell. When he spoke, he did so in a simple and comprehensible way, creating his own ´Dutch idiom´ of the German language. What was I supposed to ask such a man?I was preoccupied with myself, had to see how to get myfeetonthegroundandlearnhowtotakemyfirststepsasadirector.Tenyearslaterhehadpassedaway.Ididnotseehisfilmsuntilintheearly80s,whenI,originallyafilmmaker,startedtakingacloserlookattheearlyhistoryofDEFA.Bythen it was too late for a conversation. The results of myinvestigations found their way into a manuscript that Iworkedoutasmydissertationin1990andthatwaspub-lishedin1994.AfterthemonographicstudybyAlfredKrautz(1969)1andtheobituarieswrittenbyBertHogenkampand

RolfRichter(1979)2,thiswasthefirsttimeHuiskenwasfi-nallymentionedagain.Tomehewasashininglight.HowwouldIwriteabouthimtoday?

FromAmsterdamtoBerlinJoopHuiskenwasborninAmsterdamonApril30thof1901.His fatherwasaworkerandslaughtererat themunicipalstockyard, his mother a seamstress. As a boy, he experi-enced the arduous existence of a proletarian family andthegreatstrikeof1911.HuiskenwenttoaChristianprimaryschool,workedasanassistantindifferentofficesandasanapprenticeinabank.Becauseofhisphysiqueandhisstateof health, his dream job was out of the question for him.‘Mybrothersbecamemetalworkers,butIcouldn´tbecauseof the way I moved and the way I looked. But my familybackground has been decisive. Throughout my whole lifeI have been around workers, dockers, metalworkers.’3 Hu-iskentookeveningclassesandattheageof19becameanaccountantatabank.Afewyearslaterhelostthisjob.‘Ididnotwanttoworkinmyownprofessionanymore,becausestockdealing isnotonly pointless, butalso felonious.’4Heworked as an unskilled worker for a while and then on a

bargeontheRhine,untilin1926hejoinedtheAmsterdambranchoftheCapicompanywhosedirectorwasJorisIvens.There, he started working as a sales assistant and repre-sentative for optical equipment. Everything he learnedaboutoptics,electricalengineeringandphotographywasself-taught. The ´Capians were not just employees of thecompany,theywereactivelyinvolvedintheactivitiesoftheNederlandscheFilmliga(DutchFilmSociety,1927-1933)andthefilmmakingofJoris Ivens.5 ‘Atthattime, Ihardlyknewanythingabouttheproblematicsofartisticfilmdesign,butwas almost an outsider in this respect.’6 Huisken initiallycollaboratedonIvens filmsasatechnicalassistant,p.e.asa cyclist for Regen (Rain), taking Ivens and his camera onthecarrierandthecrossbar,thenasacameraman(Wij bou-wen/We AreBuilding ,Zuiderzee,Philips Radio,Nieuwe Gron-den/New Earth).TheclassicsequenceoftheclosingofthedikeinZuiderzeewerkenandNew Earth,waspartlyshotbycameramanHuisken,whenIvenswasabroad.Tospeakofateacher-studentrelationship,asithasbeendoneoverandoveragaininthetextsonHuisken,isoutofthequestion.Iv-enswasonlythreeyearsolderthanHuisken,hewasratheramoreorlessconsciousrolemodeltohim.Foreverybodyparticipating, even for Helen van Dongen and John Fern-hout,itwasalllearningbydoing.HuiskenwastheretoseethefoundationoftheFilmligathemeetingsoftheEuropeanfilmavant-gardeandthediscoveryoftheSovietfilmwhichculminatedintheinvitationofPudowkintoAmsterdam.ItwasthroughIvensthatHuiskengotintouchwiththeVer-eenigingvoorVolksCultuur(VVVC,AssociationforPopularCulture, 1928) that also produced a newsreel (VVVC-jour-naal/VVVC newsreel,1930)andthatchangedintoVereenig-ingvanVriendenvandeSowjet-Unie(VVSU;AssociationoftheFriendsoftheSovietUnion,1931).Huiskenbecameco-founderofitsInternationaleFilmonderneming(IFO;Inter-nationalFilmCompany,1933),afilmdistributorforSovietfilmsthatcontinuedtheworkstartedbytheFilmligainitsownfield.In1933hevisitedtheSovietUnionwithawork-ers delegationrecordingthistripwithhiscamera,justasIvenshaddonewithhistripthreeyearsbefore.TheDutchcensorwasonlypreparedtogivetheArbeidersdelegatiefilm (Workers’ delegation film), 1934)acertificate,ifnolessthan23 captions and several shots were cut. This film was fol-lowed by De Markthallen van Parijs (The Market-halls of Paris, 1934,Director:PaulSchuitema).TogetherwithMarkKolthoff,apainterandphotographerwhowaspartoftheCapigroup,HuiskenstartedthecompanyStudiefilmin1935.Setuptodistributeeducationalfilmstoschools,itstartedwithonlytwofilms.OnewasaversionofIvens’Zuiderzee-werkenwhich,ironically,hadbeenespeciallyadaptedusingthe instructions of the same censor –an expert in educa-tionalcinema–whohadsodrasticallymutilatedHuisken’sArbeidersdelegatiefilm.Studiefilmdidnotlastlong,accord-ingtoKolthoffbecauseheandHuiskenlostinterest.7

Inthe1930’sphotographywasanother(neglected)activityof Joop Huisken. With Joris Ivens, Mark Kolthoff and JohnFernhouthebelongedtothefoundingmembersoftheVe-reniging van Arbeidersfotografen (Association of WorkerPhotographers), which had been established in 1931 withtheaim‘oftrainingtheworkersintheworkofphotography,in order to make them fit for taking pictures with regardtotheactivitiesoftherevolutionaryworkers’movement.’8HewaslistedasacontributorforthenewperiodicalFoto en Film, which Kolthoff, Schuitema and some others werehopingtostartin1935.9Andhewasalsoactivelyinvolvedin the organisation of Foto ‘37, the seminal showcase ofDutch‘NewPhotography’organisedbytheBondterVerde-digingvanKultureleRechten(UnionfortheDefenceofCul-

turalRights)intheStedelijkMuseumAmsterdam.10NoneofHuisken’s1930’sphotographshavesurvived.

TheFilmligahadceasedtoexist in 1933and Ivenswasonhiswaytothebattlefieldsofworldhistory.AccordingtoacloseGermanfriend,‘[i]nhisprofessionasanoperatorforcultureanddocumentaryfilms,therewerehardlyanyca-reeroptionsforthelocalfilmmakersintheNetherlandsbe-causeoftheirlimitedpossibilities’11.WhenHuiskensawanopportunitytomakeafilmthough,hegrabbeditwithbothhands.ThushedirectedEen medicus over Spanje(A doctor about Spain,1937),a35mmsoundfilmfortheCommissionAidtoSpainfeaturingitssecretary,thewell-knownmedi-cal practitioner and socialist councillor Ben Sajet. A yearlaterfollowedthesilent16mmfilmHier is de VPRO(Here is the VPRO, 1938). Huisken and graphic designer Piet Maréeco-directedthislow-bugetpropagandafilmfortheliberalprotestantbroadcastingassociation.12In1938healsomadea documentary about the electrification of the railroadbetweenAmsterdamandUtrecht.OneyearlaterheagainmadeafilmwithPietMaréeentitledVier vrienden winnen een wedstrijd (Four Friends win a Match, 1939).

Huisken was the director of the VVSU between 1934 and1938andrepeatedlywenttoMoscowfornegotiations,gottoknowErnstBuschinAmsterdamandHansRodenberginMoscow.TherewasenoughtodointheNetherlandsalone:strengtheningthealliancebetweentheworkersandintel-lectualsandtheantifascistmovement,collaboratingwiththeInternationaleArbeiterhilfe(IAH;WorkersInternation-alRelief/WIR)inordertosupportthevictimsofnazism.Hu-isken repeatedly delivered messages and illegal literaturefrom Amsterdam to Berlin. The above mentioned confi-danteconfirmedthathewas‘veryreliableandprudentinthistask’,a‘goodcomrade,alwayswillingtohelp’.13

DuringtheWarAfter the occupation of the Netherlands by the GermanWehrmachtinMay1940,JoopHuiskenwasdraftedtoworkinGermanyinAugustofthesameyear.HecametoPots-dam-BabelsbergtoUniversumFilmAG(Ufa),otherDutch-menreceivedjobsatthecity sdepartmentofpublicworks,p.e.astramdrivers,inlocalfirmsaccordingtotheirprofes-sionalqualification,orlikewiseatUfaasancillarylightingtechniciansorunskilledworkers.9Afterfirstbeingaccomo-datedinprivatehomes,theirweresoonrelocatedinshackson the Ufa premises, but could move around quite freelycompared to the East European workers.10 Huisken waslucky.Becauseofhisprofessionalexperience,hewasfirstemployedasatricktechnicianandfromMarch1941onasacameraassistantintheUfadepartmentofrearprojectionwhereheenjoyedaregulatedworkschedule,vacationandsalary according to a contract of employment and wageregulations.Athisownrequestandafterhavingpresentedhis Aryan descent , he was accepted into the ´FachschaftFilm´oftheReichsfilmkammer(FilmChamberoftheReich)inMay1942.Hisdepartmentmusthavehadanurgentin-terestinthis,too, becausefromthenonhecouldbeem-ployedasanindependentlyshootingassistantinthewholeReichwithoutanyfurtherformalities.Thiswasevenmoreimportantsincethestudiowashighlyfrequented,evenaf-tertheextensiveworkonspecialeffectsdoneforthemovieMünchhausen(1942/43)whichhehadapartin.Theconsp-criptionsofstaffmemberstotheWehrmachtaddedtothisas well. His ´foreman´ was the cameraman Ewald Krause(bornin1907).Thankstohissomewhatcivillife–helivedintheMoabitdistrictofBerlin,officiallyasatenant11,inreal-itywiththewomanhewasgoingtoliveandstartafamily

The film-worker Joop Huisken (1901-1979)

An almost forgotten colleague and collaborator of Joris Ivens

GünterJordan

Joop Huisken shooting

Zuiderzeewerken (New

Earth), Photo © Mark

Kolthoff. Col. JIA/EFJI.

• Mark Kolthoff, Joop Huisken

(at the background) and

Joris Ivens during the

shooting of Philips radio,

1931.Coll. JIA/EFJI.

• Joop Huisken and Willem

Bon, working at the studio

of the Filmtechnische

leergang (Film technical

Study course), ca. 1934. Coll.

JIA/EFJI.

• Joop Huisken, Filmstill

Electrification Railroad

Amsterdam-Utrecht, 1938.

Coll. Filmmuseum Potsdam/

28 29October 2010 | 16October 2010 | 16

withafter 1945,andbetween1943and1945hehadasec-ondhomeinthe´Stern´areaofPotsdam-Huiskenwasabletogetinformationaboutthewarsituationthathisfellowcountrymen,beinginternedintheUfashacks,didnothavesuchaneasyaccessto.Helaterneversaidawordaboutthissituation,eventhoughhemusthavebeenconsciousofit,andneitherdidhetalkabouthisworkforUfaandabouthispriviligedsituation,heonlyspokeoftheforcedlabor,whichofcourseitwas.

AftertheendofthewarhestayedinBerlin.Heactivelysup-portedthecreationoftheCulturalAssociationfortheDem-ocraticRenovationofGermanyintheTiergartendistrictofBerlin.FortheStatePictureandFilmArchivehemadesomefilmrecordingsofthedestroyedcityofBerlin.Hehadman-aged to obtain a camera, whencesoever. Initially, Sowex-port provided the raw film, later the DEFA did. And that swherehestayed.Afteralltheseyears,Huiskenhadtorein-vent for himself what a documentary film was and couldbe.Hisdowry‘socialbackground,politicaldecision,initialencounter with the avant-garde and revolutionary film‘andthetechnicaltrainingattheUfaconstitutedauniquefundament for this. He was a cameraman, a director andaproductionmanager inoneperson. ‘At thattime,whenIstarted,youdiditallonyourown,andIbelievethisisanessentialfactor,thatwehadtodoeverythingbyourselves,that we were also able to do it and knew what it meantwhensomebodyelsewasdoingit.’12

HuiskenremainedDutch.13 In1946,theSovietMilitaryAd-ministrationinGermanygavehimpermissiontogohome.14TheDutchMilitaryMissionextendedhisresidencepermitforGermanyattherequestofDEFA,‘becauseweurgentlyneed him here as an important worker for the cinematicreconstructioninGermany’15,andmanagedtogetaninter-zonal passport for him. The following year, Huisken wenttotheNetherlandsagainandexploredthepossibilitiesofadistributionofDEFAfilms.‘We(haveto)proceedcarefullyinthismatter,becausethegeneralopinionintheNether-landsisstillanti-German.’16AsaresultofhistalkswiththeRegeeringsvoorlichtingsdienst (Netherlands GovernmentInformationService), theNetherlandsstartedexchangingnewsreelswithDEFA.

Between 1927 and 1940, Huisken was a member of theDutchCommunistParty.‘In1927,whenIgottoknowmanyprogressive artists, I learned about the objectives of theCommunistPartyandIcametoappreciatethem.Eversincethen,Ihavebeencommittedtothecauseofcommunism.’17Thiscommitmentwasintuitiveandlasteduntiltheendofhis life. And it was naive. The intimate comrade from hisillegal work observed: ‘Owing to his artistic work, he hasthisvolatilitythatisgenerallyinherentinartistsandthatstandsinthewayofthemethodicalworkofthepartyof-ficials.’AfterhisdecisiontostayinGermanyandworkforDEFA,itwasjustanaturalcourseofactionforhimtoorga-nize. InFebruary1947,heappliedtobecomeamemberoftheSEDandwasacceptedinDecember.‘NobodyevertalkedaboutanofficialauthorizationbytheDutchpartyconcern-ing my residence in Germany and I don´t think anybodyeverthoughtaboutit.’

Inlatefall1949,aslanderouschargeissuedtotheheadin-quisitoroftheSEDandchairmanoftheZentraleParteikon-trollkommission(ZPKK,CentralPartyControlCommission),Hermann Matern, set in train a dangerous machineryagainstHuisken.‘Hemaintainspersonalandmaterialrela-tionstoleadingDutchTrotskyists.’Tounderstandthis,one

hastoknow:Atthebeginningoftheyear1949,theconver-sionoftheSEDintoa´partyofanewtype´accordingtotheSovietmodelhadstarted.InSeptember1949,theNoel-Fieldcampaign,operatedfromMoscow,hadbeeninitiatedinthecountrieswithapeople sdemocracy,followedbytheRajkandtheSlanskytrials.This ledtoextensiveinvestigationson subversiveelements andemigrantsfromtheWestandto detentions, also in the Soviet Occupation Zone of Ger-many.TheZPKKconsequentlyrequestedHuisken sperson-aldocumentsandcurriculumvitaeandsummonedhimforaquestioning.Inthemeantime,theSEDpartyleadership sresolution on the ´Lessons Learned from the Trial Againstthe Slansky Centre of Conjuration´ had been published18,which in the party s magazine was closed with the sen-tence: ‘A new chapter in the development of our party isbeginning.’Everythoughtlessphrase,everydeliberatede-nunciationcouldbeusedagainstanybody.Huisken stimeofforcedlabourwasbeingre-evaluatedinadifferentlight:‘Duringthewholetimeofthewar,hewas livingfreely inGermany.’ According to rumours, some of his Dutch com-radesconsideredhimarenegadebecausehehadworkedforUfaandhadstayedinGermanyaftertheendofthewar.Whohadgivenhimtheinterzonalpassport,whythetripstotheNetherlands?TheallegationthathewasaTrotskyistprovedtobeuntenable.‘TheconsultationconductedwithH.didnotproduceanyhintsof linkstosubversivecircles.Therearenoobjectionstoallowinghimtoremainamem-ber of the party.’19 The only question remaining was if aDutchmancouldbeamemberoftheSED.Inordertoanswerthis, the´brotherparty´hadtobe included.Querieswiththe Dutch Communist Party remained unanswered. TheCentralCommissionfortheExchangeofPartydocumentsdeletedhimfromitslistsandinOctober1951closedthefileHuisken.

FromPotsdam baut auf toTurbine I TwoweeksbeforetheoccupationofPotsdambytheSoviettroups(April27th1945),thecitycenterofPotsdamhadbeendestroyedinanAlliedbombattack(April14th1945). Inthefollowingtime,considerableeffortswererequiredinordertore-establishaminimumofmunicipalandcivil life.The

rubbleallaroundwasequaltothedevastationsinpeoplesminds.Everybody sownmentalblockhadtobebroken.Be-ginning in May 1946, the city administration looked for adirect contact between administration and population inordertoencouragethemtocollaborate.Themayor sreportfrom July 1946, which was distributed in the whole city,brought about a particular amount of resonance. ‘A lookbackattheeventsclearlyconveysthatinspiteofeverythingandinproportiontothenumberofworkers,immenseac-complishments have been achieved. (...) These are resultsthat nobody can fail to notice if he wants to see. (...) Theyear1946hastobethedecisivestartingpointoftherecon-structionandallthemeansavailablehavetobeemployedinordertoleadthisstarttoafinalanddecisivesuccess.’20

Oneofthemeanswasfilm.Itisnotrecordedinthedocu-mentsiftheproposalcamefromDEFAorfromthecityandintheenditdoesnotmatter:theCityofPotsdamcommis-sionedDEFAtoproducethePotsdam‘ArchiveFilm’21,itwasimmediately approved by the military censors. City andDEFA were in constant communication anyways becauseofthetakeoveroftheAlthoffstudiosinNowawes(Babels-berg), whose trustee was the city. Here, the foundationceremonyofDEFAtookplaceonMay17th, 1946.Underthecircumstancesofthattime,thefilmwasnotexactlycheapforthecity(12,300Reichsmark),butitplayedapublicandmoralrolethatmoneycouldnotpayfor.

JoopHuiskenhadassumedtheresponsibilityforscript,di-rectionandcamera.ThequestionifhehadappliedforthisfilmorifDEFAhadofferedittohimcannotnotbeansweredatthispoint.HuiskenhadbeenthereduringtheAlliedairraidonPotsdamandthedevastationoflargepartsofthecity,amongthemtheUfapremises,heknewPotsdamandhehadacamera.HisassistantandindependentlyshootingsecondcameramanwashispreviousUfa´foreman´EwaldKrause.TherewerenogroundsforjubilationandHuiskenoperatedinanaccordinglycarefulmanner.‘Ididnotwanttoshowitinsuchawayeitherandgiveawrongimpressionofthefacts,butstilllettheobserverfeelthatwearewellonthewaytoclearawaythechaos.’22Healsowantedtosetamarkwithhisfilmthatcausedreflection.HemadeitstartinSanssouci,tofollowthepathfromFrederickIIpastHin-denburgtoHitler,andbeganwiththewords:‘Whenamanopensuptoapathofinjustice,atthesametimeheopensup to a path of doom and the time comes when the firstleadsintothesecond.’Aftereverythinghadfallentopieces,thecity sinhabitantsstartedcleaningup.Huiskenputthisintoimagesinanalmostclassicalway.CollectivecleaningupoftherubbleandBeethoven s´Leonora´Overturecom-bined and simultaneously excluded each other and thatwaycommentedthepresentsituationinawaywordswerestillunableto.Thefilmusedthe(reenacted)inaugurationofthecitycouncillorsofPotsdamasastartingpointfortherenderingofaccountonthereconstructionworkdonebythecityadministrationandthepopulationofPotsdamdur-ingtheyearfollowingtheendofthewar:documentsofthereestablishmentofcommunallife,ofthecity’sdepartmentofpublicworks,ofthestreets,thetramnetwork,thesmallbusinesses.Buteventhere-enactmentofthepresentationofthedepartmentheadsbecameadocument,becausetheexpressiononthefacesofeverybodyinvolvedstillreflectedthe circumstances surrounding their work. The mayor ofPotsdamhopedthatthefilmwould‘beabletoshowlatergenerations, to whom our present time will have turnedintoahistoricalpast,arealisticandtrueimageofthechaosandthegeneralhardshipaswellasofthecourageousat-temptstomasterandovercomethishopelesssituation.’23

With intentional scarcity of devices, Huisken obtained adrastic effect. ‘The cameramen have created images thatachieve an incredible forcefulness through their compo-sition and their technical perfection. (...) It s the merit ofthe German film production that recommenced after thegreatcatastrophetobaseitsartisticstandardsonanintel-lectualattitude,thatistosaythecriticalexaminationnotonlyofgivenrealcircumstances,butespeciallyofamentalsituation.’24

ThePotsdamfilmwassimpleandcontainedessentialchar-acteristics of Huisken s filmmaking which would furtherdevelopinthefollowingyears:aneyeforprocessesandges-tures and objective rationality, not without empathy andnot without photographic beauty. The image was always´intense .SimplyDutchrealism.Iftherewasanything´ide-ological´ about it, then it was his interest in the workingman.Hisfilmswerenotmeanttobeemotionallytouching,just as little as ideologically persuasive. Neither will onefindtwirlsandarabesquesinthem,orthatsolemnphysi-calityknownfromeducationalfilmsthatcouldbeseenintheDresdenandHalleversionsofthesecinematicreports(Dresden; Sachsen-Anhalt am Werk/Saxony-Anhalt Works, 1946);onlyBerlin im Aufbau (Berlin in Reconstruction, 1946)wasruthlesslysober.Hisfilmmakingcouldnotdisclaimtheearly influence of the Capi circle, and it probably did notwanttodenyiteither,this‘hybridmixtureofspontaneousreport, reenacted scenes and lyricism of the images’ thatAndréStufkenshasdiscoveredinJorisIvens films.25

Huiskenwasdefinitelynotanobserverofthebeginnings,hewasaparticipantandhelpedshapetheconditionsinfilmandrealityandhemovedalongthenarrowridgebetweenreproducingandexertinganinfluencewithoutslidingintopurismandagitation.‘Weshowedthatpeopleinthewholecountrywereusingtheirhandsinordertopursueapeace-fuljoband,asfaraspossibleandasfarasthecircumstanc-espermitted,restartproduction,getthefactoriesandma-chinesgoing.AndsincethroughthedocumentarieswehadtheopportunitytoshowthepeopleintheNorthwhatthepeopleintheSouthhadalreadysetinmotionagainandtoshowthoseintheSouthwhathadbeensetinmotionintheNorth,thiscreatedacommonfeeling:Wewillmakeit,wewillmoveahead!’26

WiththePotsdamfilmhehadstartedhisworkfortheGer-man film and had introduced his subject straight away:thelifeandworksofworkingpeople.Thishappenedinthemiddleofthecenturywhichwasalsothemiddleofhislife.Itwasnowhightimetouncovereverythingthathisnaturalabilitiesprovidedandthathadbeeninwardlyripeningdur-ingalltheseyears.Itwastimetocreatehisownworks.HewasnotindifferenttothesituationinGermany.DEFAwasgivinghimworkandaroof.Withtheseparationfromhiswife,thetiestoAmsterdamweresevered,anewfamiliyinBerlinwasbeingstarted.SohestayedinGermany.

AtDEFAhewasinitiallyworkingdaysandnightsforthenews-reelDer Augenzeuge(TheEyewitness).Thiswasaninnovativenewsreel,butthatisnotpartofthesubject.Inatimeofut-mostmaterialandtechnicalrestrictions,duringthecourseofthreeorfouryearsitstoodoutwithitsopen-mindedness,itsimagery, its scenic profiles and its subjects with soundbitessucceedingThe March of Timethatwerelookingfortheirkindatthattime.Everybodydideverything, thecameramancar-riedouttheproductionmanagement,theproductionmanag-erdirected,themainpointwastogetbacktothestudiowithagoodsubject.Filmtraininginrealtime.

Joop Huisken, Filmstills

Stahl (Steel), 1948. Coll.

Filmmuseum Potsdam/N.J.H.

© DEFA-Foundation, Berlin

Joop Huisken shooting for

the Ufa, ca. 1943. Photo

Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv

30 31October 2010 | 16October 2010 | 16

The film Aus eigener Kraft (From Own Power, 1947) was astraightforwardreportoftheachievementsofthe´IGMet-all´ (MetalUnion)but itwasstillhardlyafilm, justas lit-tleasstraightforwardnesswasanaestheticcategory.ThefollowingfilmStahl (Steel, 1948)showedthatHuiskenhadbeenlearning.Thesubjectwassimple.ThesteelmakersofRiesahadtochargethefurnacesmanuallybecausetheydidnothaveanycranes.Theywereunabletobuildoneontheirown because they lacked the pieces. Some enterprises inSaxonyandSaxony-Anhaltrespondedtotheircallforhelpby sending single parts that were often in need of repairthemselves. The charging crane could be built, the work-ingconditionsmadeeasier,theproductivityincreased.Thestorylinewasbasedonanactualoccurrencethathadbeenbroadcasted and written about in the newspapers underthe slogan ´Riesa needs cranes . The film refused to pres-entameresuccessstory.Itexposedthebackbreakingworkandthenantitheticallyfollowedtheoperationofthecrane.Everygainofideasandpiecesofthecranewasfollowedbyanewfailurewhichwasovercomethroughnewideasandnew activities. Operation cycles depended on men whocursed and then rolled up their sleeves again. The pres-sureunderwhichthesteelmakersworkedwasportrayedthrough cross-cutting and rhythmic cutting. This way ofstickingtotheoperationbroughtadramaticaleffecttothefilmthatwasproducedbyfilmicdevices,butnotdominat-edbythem.Thecauseitselfandthepeoplepushingitfor-wardwerethedrivingforces.Thecommentarytookupthecourseoftheactionandservedtheincreasingpacebyla-conicallyrepeatingthecraneformulaandthedirectquotesfromtheworkers.StahlwasIvens modelfromZuiderseeinGerman.

Becauseoftheantitheticalstructure,forthefirsttimetheconstructionofaplotwaspossibleinadocumentary.Idea,script and dramaturgy by Huisken s author Gerhard Kleinalreadycontainedthepromiseofrealisminsightandform.Yearslater,thiswastomakeGerhardKleinamasterofneo-realisminBerlinwherehemadefeaturefilmhistoryatDEFA(Berlin - Ecke Schönhauser/Berlin - Schönhauser Corner,1957,a.o.).ThisopenedupthecinematicspaceforJoopHuisken sstrong points which he brought into DEFA documentaryfilmmaking. ‘To capture the concreteness of a situation -thatisthefirstandessentialaspectthatIvenstaughtme.’27Asafilmmaker,Huiskenwasnotanideologist,butaskilledworkerathisobjectjustasanyotherworker.

Theproductionofdocumentaryfilms,stilllocatedinPots-dam-Babelsberg,startedtopropagatethetwo-yearplaninthe Soviet Occupation Zone. Andrew Thorndike, who hadreturned from Soviet captivity a year before, became thepolitical and artistic director. Harry Funk: ‘Joop Huisken,whohadalreadyworkedwithJorisIvensinhisearlyyears,hadgottentoknowadifferentkindofdocumentaryfilm,apoliticallycommitted,sociocriticaldocumentaryfilm.Thisiswhyhisfilmsfromthattimewherethosethatcameclos-esttotheinternationalstandardofdocumentaries.’28Hu-iskentoweredabovethemall,notjustinaphysicalsense.EvaFritzsche:‘JoopHuiskenwasalmosttheonlyoneofuswhowasalreadyreallyexperiencedintheareaoffilmmak-ing.(...)Weall learnedalotfromeachother.ForexampleJoopHuisken:Heknewitall,youcouldalwaysask imforadvice.Sometimeshedidnotfeel liketalkingatthatmo-ment,buthewasarealfriend,apalasyoucouldnotimag-ineanybetterone.’29Thiscontinuedinthefiftieswhenthenext bunch of young unexperienced filmmakers enteredthestudio.AgainitwasHuiskenwhotookthemasideandexplained to them in a practical way what filmmaking is

about.AlfonsMachalz:‘Thismanabsolutelythrivedonbe-ing able to pass on his knowledge and his experiences toothers.Hewoulddiscusswithyoulateintothenightsinthecanteenorinabar,hewoulddragyoutothecuttingroomortotheshowingofafilminordertomakeyouunderstandthe1x1ofcinematography.’30

In spring 1950, the production of political documentarieswasconnectedmorecloselywiththenewsreel.Thegroupmoved to Berlin, the Department for Newsreels becamethe Department for Newsreels and Documentary Films,thentheDepartmentbecametheStudioofthesamename(1952).ThedirectorandcameramanJoopHuiskenbecamethe Brigade Huisken, that managed to shoot five films inoneyear,politicalfilmsproducedbycommissionlike1952 – Das entscheidende Jahr(1952-TheDecisiveYear,1952)and‘Nach 900 Tagen (After 900 Days, 1953) with the usual af-flictionsofthattime:lushnarrationthatwasaccompaniedbyfootage.Filmsofthatkindalwaysbroughtthesameslo-gans, linguistic stereotypes, political simplifications, thenever changing cadences of the language, the propagan-distic fervour, the background music fraught with mean-ingintothemovietheaters.Nobodyintheaudiencecoulduse this for new observations, new experiences. This wasnotjustaconsequenceoftheColdWartimesandspirit.Itwasalsofosteredbythefirmbeliefinthemiracleofbeingable to restructure and reprogramm a society in no timeandparticularlyusefilmmakingforthisenterprise.WhenamanlikeHuiskenadaptedtothis,thisdidnotdoanygoodneithertohisfilmsnortohimself.ItwasnotuntilTurbine I (1953) that he dropped out of this formula, only with thisfilmdidhereturntohimself.

InTurbine I,Huiskentrackedthegeneralrepairofaturbinethatwassupposedtobecarriedoutaccordingtoanewlydeveloped high-speed procedure. Following the model ofStahl and for simplicities sake, Huisken wanted to stagecertainoperations.Buttheworkersobjected.Theydidnotwanttosetupanything,noteventhemselves.Andthefilmcould not be done without the cooperation of the work-ers.TheworkerBowens,initiatorofthematter,said:‘Theycame here with a preconceived opinion and they had toadapt.ButJoopquicklyunterstoodwhatitcamedownto.Thiswasunknownterritoryforthefilmcrewaswell.Thentheyspentdayandnightattheenterprise,satonthepal-liassewiththeircameraandshottheindividualstagesoftheprocess.Itwassupposedtobesomethingspecial.Andthefilmalsoshowedwhensomethingdidnotworkout.Thework rhythm was precisely planned, interruptions couldhardlybemadeupagain.’31Thematterwascarriedoutbyworkerswhounderstooditastheirpropermatter.‘Anybodythinkingaboutthefirstyearsofourrepublicshouldwatch

Turbine I.Thatwayhecanobservehowattitudesdevelopedthatbecamethefoundationofour life.’32Thefactthatheimmediatelyunderstoodthesituationandabandonedallthe conditions common to film production at that timespokeverywellforHuisken.ThiswasonlypossiblebecauseofthepoliticalreputationthatHuiskenhadacquiredwithhispreviousproductionsandthatnowyieldedaddedvalueinanartisticsensejustlikewell-investedcapital.Thatwaythedocumentarycouldnotjusttellabouttheworkersbutbecreatedindirectcooperationwiththem.Theauthorofthe commentary, Karl Gass, was also caught by this spiritand therefore sticked to the style of a report instead ofturning it intoastatesupportingaffair.Theredflaghadnotbeenputupbythefilmcrew,ithangtherebecauseofthetimes.Huiskenpushedaheadwiththedemonstrationoftheworkingprocessasifitwasasportsreport,similarto thewayhehaddone it inStahl,whichresembleda re-portfromasix-dayrace,andthePotsdamfilm,whichwasnotlightondramaticeffectseither.Thisshowedthecom-petenceandsuperioreasehehadachievedindealingwithsubject and form. The conclusion of Turbine I laconicallyprovedthis:acrateofbeer,adrinktogether,alastsignofsolidarityresembledafadingawayafterhavingcrossedthefinishline.

When the documentary was finished, the worker Bowenstravelled all over the country with it and popularized hismethod of the high-speed repairing procedure. ‘You cantalkorwritea lot,but imagesspeakvolumes.That swhyit was important that the film was so honest. That s whyit could cause an effect.’ That way, until the early sixties,the documentary produced an economic value of severalhundredmillionsofmarks.Tothisday,itisregardedasanimportantexperimentforthedevelopmentofsocialistartandastherarecaseofafilmwhereutilityvalueandartisticvaluecometogether.

What could have become an aesthetic example, however,didnotcause imitation:While in 1948/49Huisken sposi-tionhadbeentooweak inbothanartisticalandpoliticalsenseinordertocontributetoshapingtheDEFAdocumen-tarystyle,in1953itwastoolatetoalteritsbasicarrange-ments.

There was nobody who could hold a candle to him. OnlyHugoHermanntoppedHuisken sTurbine IwithStahl und Menschen (Steel and Workers, 1956). From what is heard,thetwomen,almostofthesameage,oneaDutchman,theotheroneAustrian,couldnotstandeachother.Huisken sfollowing documentary Dass ein gutes Deutschland blühe(So that a good Germany may flourish,1959)wastobeun-derstoodasaresponsetothischallenge:Iamstillthetopdog, I canstilldo it.At that time,however,Hermannhadlongsincebecomeavictimofapoliticalintrigueandhadbeendrivenoutofthestudio.

ExcursusJorisIvensIIn summer 1948, Joris Ivens had written an unexpectedlettertoJoopHuisken.Thiscontainedthecharacteristices-sentialsandmarkedthebeginningofhislaterDEFAwork.‘IheardaboutDEFAinthiscity(Prague)andinBelgradeandeveryonceinawhileIalsoseesomethingonfilmproduc-tionpublishedinamagazine.It sanenormoustaskforfilmproductiontobecollaboratingintheefforttofinallycon-vertGermanyintoahabitablecountry,onademocraticba-sisandlivinginpeacewithallitsneighbours.IfyouwanttoandthinkthatIcouldbeofanyhelpforyou,makesuretheDEFAmanagementsendsmea letternowandthen.That

wayIcancometoBerlinforafewdaystotalktoyou.(...)However, we will need a lot of coordination and contact.WeareorganizingaworldcongressfordocumentaristsinPragueandsomebodyfromyourstudiohastocomeaswell(or several people) (but certainly you!).’33 For reasons un-knowntoday,thisideawasnotcarriedout.

Theywereonlyreunitedbyajob,Freundschaft siegt(Friend-ship Triumphs,1951/1952),areportageincolouronthethirdworld festival of youth and students. The documentarywas a co-production of DEFA and Mosfilm. Joris Ivens, to-getherwithIwanPyryev,wasthedirector.AfterallhisjobsinPoland,BulgariaandCzechoslovakiahethoughthewassuitedtodothis,butinstyleandorganisation,thisfilmwascharacterizedbytheSovietwayofworking.Surroundedbya whole army of assistant directors, Joop Huisken had nochoicebuttosimplydohisjob,asonewouldsaytoday.Iv-enswasimpressedbytheprogressHuiskenhadmade.‘HedidexactlytheoppositeofwhatJohnny(i.e.JohnFernhout)didandbecameafantasticman.’34ThischangedwhenIv-ens shot his next big international documentary, Lied der Ströme (Song of the Rivers,1953/1954).HuiskenwasnowtheindependentlyworkingdirectoroftheGermanshootings.ForhisnextprojectDie Windrose(The Windrose,1954),IvenshiredHuiskenasacameraman.Thiswasthedocumentaryfictionfilmaboutthelifeofwomenallovertheworldforwhichtheepisodeswerefilmedbydifferentdirectorsandthenput togetherbyAlbertoCavalcanti.The ideafor thishadcomefromIvensandthecommissionerIDFFandDEFAhad entrusted him with the responsibility of the artisticoverallmanagement.IvenshighlyesteemedHuisken sabil-itiesandhis reliabilityandHuisken in turnenjoyedtobeincludedinambitiousprojectsthatbroughthimtogetherwith filmmakers from all over the world. Not least of allwithAlbertoCavalcanti,whomhehadcometoknowandappreciatein1928,‘oneofthemostimportantdirectorsinthistimewhohadavaluableandstimulatinginfluenceonthedevelopmentoftherealisticfilmandoneveryoneofus.(...)InourdiscussionsintheFilmligainAmsterdam,whichfrequentlylastedthewholenight,hisfilmsalwaysplayedarolebecausetheycontainedsomanyinnovations.’35

It was not just because of Ivens life and works that thisrenewalof theirprofessional relationshipdidnotdevelopintoapurefriendshipbetweenmenandartists.Bothwereon the one hand straightforward, but on the other handheadstrong. Huisken could be quite stubborn sometimes.That showtheyhadcometoknoweachotheratCapiandthat s what Helene van Dongen had benefited from as asecretaryandmanager.36HuiskenalwayscalledIvens´theoldman ,butinarespectfulandfriendlyway,andIvensal-waysteasedhimbycordiallyandsarcasticallycallinghimstubbornbuddy´(´Gnatzkopf´inDutch).

Joris Ivens and Joop Huisken

during the shooting of

Freundschaft siegt

(Friendship Triumphs,

1951/52)

© DEFA-Foundation, Berlin

Joop Huisken and Joris Ivens

during the shooting of

Lied der Ströme, 1954

coll. JIA/EFJI

© DEFA-Foundation, Berlin

Joop Huisken pointing the

film crew of Freundschaft

siegt at something, on the

right Joris Ivens. Coll. JIA/EFJI.

© DEFA-Foundation, Berlin

32 33October 2010 | 16October 2010 | 16

TherelationshipbetweenHuiskenandIvensespeciallysuf-fered from Ivens authority which was built up from theoutsideandwhichstructurallyputHuiskenatadisadvan-tage.Ivenswasfrequentlyappointedasanartisticdirectorbythestudio.Themostwell-known–andoddest–caseisMein Kind(My Child,1953)byAlfonsMachalzandVladimirPozner,whichIvensonlygottoseeuntilaftertheopeningnight. This was directly followed by the China movie, forwhich the studio wanted to appoint him as a supervisor.But Ivens neither had an interest nor a stake in this. Thenamesaysitall:itdidnothappenalltoooftenthatastudiohadalivingsealofqualityatitsdisposal!Huisken,whosenamebythattimealsosentoutamessage,hadtolivewiththefactthat,justasinthestoryofthehareandthehedge-hog,Ivenswasalwaystherebeforehim.TheonlytimethatHuiskenhada leadwasin1961whenhewasgrantedtheacademictitleofaprofessor;Ivensdidnotreceivethehon-orary doctorate from the Karl Marx University in Leipziguntilsevenyearslater.

Ivens was friendly and mindful towards Huisken, he sentgreetings, asked about him and interceded on his behalf.When Huisken died in early April 1979, Ivens sent a tele-gramthatwaspubliclypostedatthestudioentrancenexttoHuisken spicture.Thisnotonlyconstitutedarecordoftheirrelationship,butalsoadocumentationoftheloyaltytheDEFAStudioforDocumentaryFilmsfelttowardsIvensevenintimesofhismarginalizationintheGDR.

China – Land zwischen gestern und morgen Startingin1951,oneortwoChinesemovieshadbeendis-played at the movies each year. In most cases, they dealtwith the struggle and victory of the Peoples LiberationArmyandthefoundationofthePeoplesRepublic.Foreignfilms about China, as from the Soviet Union (1951) andCzechoslovakia (1954), were made in co-production withthe Chinese studios. China – Land zwischen gestern und morgen (China – Between Today and Tomorrow) wasprob-ablythefirstcompletelyforeignproductionshotinChinathroughouttheworld.TheChinesepartnerwastheAsso-ciationforCulturalForeignRelations.37

The documentary came into being in the course of theGerman-Frenchfilmrelationsinthesecondhalfofthefif-ties as a co-production of the DEFA Studio for NewsreelsandDocumentaryFilms inBerlinandProcinex inParis,acompanycloselyalliedwiththeFrenchCommunistParty.Itwasoriginallyplannedtohavealengthof600meterswithashootingperiodbetweenOctoberandDecember1954.38

Fostered by the adventures and experiences on site, theFrenchfavouredtheconversionofthedocumentaryintoafeature-lengthfilm.DEFAacceptedthisproposalwhichofcourse entailed new arrangements, cost estimations andcontracts. The shooting lasted until May 1955. The mainresponsibility for the production of the film and the car-ryingoutoftheshootingwasassumedbyProcinex,DEFAtookcareofthematerialprovision,thecopying(workprintand dupe negative) and shipment from Berlin; Paris wasresponsible for reshipments from China. The work in thefilmlaboratoryandtheeditingdraggedonforayear,themixingatDEFAtookplaceinOctober1956.39

TheFrenchpartnerschoseRobertMénégozasadirectorfortheproject,whohadcausedsensationwithhisfirstworkVivent les Dockers! (1950) and who since his collaborationonIvens Lied der Ströme(1954)wasknownatDEFAaswell.DuringthatjobhehadworkedwithJoopHuiskenwhowasnominated by the German side. As an insurance policy,Procinex incorporated a clause in the contract with DEFAwhichcommittedthelatter‘toentrustMr.JorisIvenswiththeartisticsupervisionofthefilm.’40Ivensrefrainedfromaccepting this, as production manager Wegner wrote toHuisken,whowas inPeking,byreturnofmail, inasmuchas ‘you are two grown-up artists and apart from a fewpersonaldiscussionswithyouheconsidersthisfilmtobea Huisken and Ménégoz documentary’.41 Robert MénégozandhiscameramanJeanPenzerhadtoreturntoParisbytheendoftheyear1954,sothatfromthenonHuiskenalonewas responsible for the continuation of the shooting, in-cludingresearch,directionandcamera.

‘The Chinese ancillary staff, of which there is plenty, iseven learning during this kind of filming, so they cannotcontributetotheaccelerationoftheprocesstoaconsider-ableextent.’42Ideaandbudgetwereorientedtosilentpic-tures,completesynchronizedsoundwouldhaveresultedinhigherexpenses,differenttechnicalequipment,additionstothecrew,limitedshootingtimeandthelossofimmedi-ateness.Again,hegothisownwayofadaptingthecondi-tionsoftheproductiontotheideas:ifhewasalreadythere,hewantedtomakesomethinggoodoutof it,evenifthisrequired more time, an extra 18,000 meters of color filmadditionaltotheplanned7,000meters(outsidethetotalquotaoftheGDRfilmproduction!)aswellasnewcashre-sources;therewasnowayofgettingforeigncurrency.

Thewaytheprojecthadmaterializedwasstrangeanyhow.The newly established Hauptverwaltung Film (HV Film;Head Office Film) of the Ministry of Culture had not evenbeen correctly informed about the short film project. TheapprovalofthejourneywasgiveninthebeliefthattheHVdirectorknewaboutit.However,heonlyfoundoutaboutitbycoincidencethroughJorisIvensandnotthroughthestu-diohewasinchargeof.WhentheFrenchpartnersarrivedinBerlinforthetransformationoftheprojectintoafeaturefilm,thestateofficialinchargehadstillnotbeeninformedabouttheplan,butwasconvincedthateverythingwasinorder.43Theonlythinghewaslackingwasapracticalideaoftherealizationofafeaturefilmwithunknownpartnersinanunknown,farawaycountryandashootingperiodof

ninemonths.Inaword:HuiskenandMénégozembarkedonaprojectthathadbeenprepared inacompletelyunsuffi-cientway.Ortoputitinadifferentway:Chaosasthesourceofprogress.Becausethisfilmwasdefinitelyaprogress.

The movie led into the landscapes of China, into villagesandcities,ontotheYangtzeRiverandintothemountains,it showed the old, venerable China of the pagodas andcaravans,oftheGreatWallandtheForbiddenCity,anditshowedtheconstructionofnewworks,ofrailwaylinesanddams. The composition of the pictures, the atmosphereandthecolorconveyedafascinatingimpressionofthelandand the people and their work. The problem was how totranslate the semiofficial shooting proposals into storiesof people. This was nothing obvious nor was it commonhabit,neither inChinanorhere in thispartof theworld.Huisken s accomplishment consisted in the fact that hewantedtodothisanddidit.Againstthebackgroundofasteelmill,hetoldthestoryofPaoTung,thetravelingtinker,he told about the wedding of Sien Jiens next to the ruralriceharvest,aboutthefirstassignmentofTschaoLin,theyoung female construction engineer, after a journey upthe Yangtze River. The protagonists of this cinematic talewererepresentedbyactors.(ApracticeasinPotsdam baut auf or Stahl, where real people reenacted an event, couldneither be communicated nor carried out under Chinesecircumstancesandadifferentmethod,accordingtowhichthecameracouldfreelyfollowtheeventswouldonlybein-troducedtofilmhistoryadecadelater.)Thatway,astylisti-callyunbrokenconnectionbetweengeneralandindividualrepresentationwasachieved.

Thecommentaryfor the (East)Germanversionwaswrit-ten by Bodo Uhse, a renowned and cosmopolitan writer,editor-in-chief of the literary magazine Aufbau´ (´Recon-struction´) and secretary of the section for poetry andcultivationoflanguageoftheGermanAcademyofArts,afriend of Ivens ever since Borinage and therefore close toHuisken, too. Uhse knew China from his own experienceandhadwrittenaboutthisin´TagebuchausChina´(´DiaryfromChina ,1956).ThatmadehiminterestingforHuiskenandDEFA.Thetextforthefilmoscillatedbetweenpoetiza-tionandinformation,butonlyawkwardlyworkedwiththeimagesasPoznerhadshownhowtodointhefirsthalfofLied der Ströme orasHermlinwoulddotwoyearslaterforDass ein gutes Deutschland blühe.

According to a new contract between Procinex and DEFAin1956,44asidefromtheworlddistributionintheWesterncountries, the French company was also responsible fortheproductionoftheGermanversionforWestGermany,WestBerlin,AustriaandSwitzerland.Ontheonehand,thisallowed for the distribution of the film under the title ofIm Schatten der chinesischen Mauer (In the Shadow of the Chinese Wall) byUnionFrançaiseduFilm,butontheotherhanditcausedtherenunciationoftheDEFAtitle.DEFAandHVFilmagreedandafterhavingcomparedbothversionsdid not have any objections against the reductions andnarrationoftheFrenchversion.Thisversionwasreleasedin1959,butinthefaceofthestartingdistributionofCarloLizzani sHinter der großen Mauer (Behind the Great Wall),whichhadbeenfilmedwithhugetechnicalarrayasafull-lengthmovie incolorandTotalScope, itdidnothaveanychance.

Film-Echo critically commented on the Italian movie thattheotherwisequitetalkativecommentatorconcealedthework and censorship conditions under which the Italians

workedinChina.45ThisreservationcouldhavebeenraisedagainstHuisken sChinafilmaswell.Andwouldnothavebeenjustified.OfcoursethefilmwasahymntothenewChina, which had only come into being five years before,throughitsownstruggle,notcreatedfromoutsideashadhappenedwiththetwoGermanies.Buteverycritiquere-quiresfamiliaritywiththecircumstancesandaminimumofempathy,atleastdealingwithadocumentaryfilmthatwantstoovercomethelimitationsoftheeducationalfilmontheonehandandthenewsreelsontheotherhand.Hu-iskenlovedimagesthatactuallydeservedthatname,nev-ertheless cinematicwhitewashing 46wasjustassuspicioustohimasitwastoIvens.Theattitudeofthisfilmreceivesitsnobilityfromthefactthatitdoesnottalkthegrandeurofthispeopleandofitsawakeningintobeing,butnegoti-atesitatthelevelofthestreet,thefield,theconstructionsite and refrains from using the emblematics commonlyusedinEuropeconcerningapeople sdemocracy.

ExcursusJorisIvensIIAfter the successful production in China from 1954/1955,DEFA prepared for a new film. Toward the end of 1955, atreatyoffriendshiphadbeensignedbetweenthePeople sRepublicofChinaandtheGDR,furtherbilateralcontracts,like the one concerning commerce and maritime ship-ping,wereinpreparation,thebilateralrelationswerepro-gressingpositively.Whatwasmoreobviousthanbackingthemupthroughanewcinematic´German-Chinesejointproduction .In1957,JoopHuiskenstayedinChinaforpre-liminarytalksandinordertofilmthefirstconsignmentof(East)Germantrucks,andwasponderingontheconcep-tionofthisfilm.TheChinesedidnothaveanyideaaboutthesubjectmatterandthetopic,buttheydidnotwanttosettleforlessthanafeature-lengthcolorfilminCinemaS-copeandstandardformat.DEFAproceededassumingthateverythingwouldworkoutfine,justasithaddonethreeyearsbefore. Inearly1958,theGermanfilmcrewtraveledtoChina.

Whattheydidnotknowandwouldnotfindoutabout:Attheverysametime,JorisIvensarrivedinPeking.HecametherefollowinganinvitationfromtheChinesegovernmenttohelpadvancetheChinesedocumentaryfilmproductionwithhelpandadvice. This implied lecturesandseminarsatthePekingFilmAcademyandtwofilmproductionswiththeparticipationofyoungfilmadeptsaccordingtoIvens principleoflearningbydoing(600 Millionen mit euch/600 Million with You and Vorfrühling/Before Spring). In addi-tiontothat,IvenswasundercontractwiththeCentralStu-dioforNewsreelsandDocumentaryFilmsasageneralcon-sultant.‘Everythingwaspresentedtomeforconsultation.Theytrustedmeintheareaofcinematicart.’47Readingthis,itisevenmoresurprisingthataninternationalfilmprojectliketheonewithDEFAwouldnothavebeenpresentedtohim.OnlytheChinesesourceswouldbeabletoclearthisup,becausenothinghasbeenhandeddownfromneitherIvensnorHuisken.

Both filmmakers were driven by the same basic thought:‘China is thecountrythat ispredestinedforbeingoneofthegreatestamongthegreat’48; ‘IhavethestrongfeelingthatagreattimeofChinesehistoryhasstarted’.49Bothdidnotcaretomakeapropagandaoraneducationalfilm.Theyfocused on the relation between man and nature, land-scape and environment, on construction, work, change,butthatwasatthesametimeprotectingthecenturies-oldtraditionsandrites.IncontrasttoIvens,whocarriedouta´bigjump from1938(400 Millionen/The 400 Million)tothe

Joop Huisken during the

shooting of China – Land

zwischen Gestern und

Morgen (1956). Coll.

Filmmuseum Potsdam/N.J.H.

© DEFA-Foundation, Berlin

GDR Minister of Culture Klein,

signing the contract for the

Chinese Film. Joop Huisken in

the middle. Coll. Filmmuseum

Potsdam/N.J.H.

34 35October 2010 | 16October 2010 | 16

present time of the year 1958, Huisken and Wedding hadbeentheretoseethedevelopmentofthenewChinaalmoststepbystep.Acomparisonofbothfilmmakers precondi-tionsandresultscouldhaveprovidedalovelyinsightintotheworkshopofdocumentaryfilm,themoresoasbothdi-rectorscamefromthesamestable.Furthermore,bothun-dertakingswerejointenterprises.Buttheiroutcomecouldnothavebeenmoredifferent.

The work of the DEFA crew started with difficulties. PaulWojczinski, unit manager: ‘We were hanging around forweeks without knowing what we were supposed and al-lowed to film. All the Chinese offered were pioneers andparadesandticketsforthePekingOperaasaconsolationforthelongwaitingperiods.’ThestudioinPekinghadap-pointedascriptwriterwhowasquicklyafterwardssenttoa people s commune without being substituted. The in-terpreterhadaninsufficientknowledgeofGerman.Therewere no documents or information on the objects to befilmed, so that, as Huisken reported, ‘we found ourselvesinthegrotesquesituationthatwehadtogetinformationabouttheNewChinaindirectlythroughtheNewGermany,whichwereceivedfromBerlinwithadelayofseveralweeks.’Germans and Chinese were talking at crossed purposes,misunderstandingswerepilingup.Themainobstaclewasthe lackof interestof theChinesestudio ina fundamen-taldiscussionofartistic issues, includingtheperceptionsofwhatadocumentaryfilmisandisabletodo.‘Accordingto the Chinese, our controversies in the areas of ideologyandartwerefundamentallydifferent;thatwewantedtoarrange situations cinematically that, according to AlexWedding sopinion,werepossible,buthadneverhappenedinreallife,andthisconceptionofours,accordingtotheirview,wascontradictorytotheprinciplesofdocumentaryfilmitself.

HuiskenandWeddingwereinsearchofpeople sstories.50‘WeproposedtoshowpeoplethatweretypicaloftheNewChina, people who change their country and in doing soreachahigherlevelofprogressthemselves.Wewantedtoshowaworkerwhonottoolongagohadstillbeenafarm-er.OurChinesecolleaguesrespondedthatsuchworkersnodoubtexisted.Butaworkerwhohadbeforebeenafarmerwasnowaworker.Anditdidnotcomplywiththeprinci-plesofsocialistrealismtoportrayhimasafarmerbecausethenhewouldhavetoactlikeafarmer.’Andthat sthewayit went on. The differences of opinion became so strongandirreconcilablethatHuiskencanceledtheshootingandDEFA no longer pursued the project. The filmed materialwasusedinthesequenceoffilmsBilder aus China(Images from China, 1959, Director: Heinz Fischer) for the GermanCentral Institute for Teaching Material. DEFA henceforthdidnothaveanydesireforanotheradventureinChinaandafter the Sino-Soviet split and the ´Cultural Revolution ,thismatterwasobsoleteanyway.Huiskenremainedloyallysilent;hewouldneversayanythingagainstapeople‘thathe lovesfromthebottomofhisheart’.Apart fromthefi-nalreport,notasinglecriticalwordeverpassedhislips.HeneversharedIvens enthusiasmforChinainthecontextoftheseventies,however.51

ItisstrangetothinkthatHuiskenandIvensstayedinChi-naatthesametimeandneverknewanythingabouteachotherandthattheinstitutionsinPeking(TheMinisteryofCulture,theCentralStudioforNewsreelandDocumenta-ryFilms)didnotbringthemtogether.WhileIvensturneddownthegovernment srequestforadocumentaryonthepeople scommunesandproceededintotheprovince,Hu-

isken was being referred to the major operations. WhileIvenswasdeliveringlecturesonthenewdocumentaryfilmat thePekingFilmAcademy,HuiskenranagroundontheChinesefilmdogma.WhileIvens Before Springhaditsfes-tiveopeningnightinPeking,HuiskenhadtojustifyhimselfagainstallegationsfromPekingafterhisreturntoBerlin.EventheGreatPrizeinMontevideoforChina – Land zwisch-en gestern und morgen couldnotcompensateforallthis.

Butsomethingthatisalsostrangeisthatsofarthecoinci-denceoftheundertakingstoChinaofboth´Capians hasnever been considered or questioned by film historians.WhileIvens comebackinChinaisopenlydiscussedinthebooks,Huisken sfailureislockedupinthearchives.Docu-mentary film in China is tightly linked to the name of Iv-ens.ThespotlightthatisshedonIvensissodazzlingthatit blinds out everybody and everything else: the Chinesenewsreel and documentary film production, productionsandcoproductionsbetweenEastandWestinandwithChi-na.The others ,too,wantedtoallowthelanguageoffilmtoadvancebyturningtowardsnewmattersandraisingnewissues,especiallyinChina.AndIvenshimselftalkedabouttheseothers,nomatteriftheywerecalledHuisken,Méné-goz,LizzaniorVautier.Fromthispointofview,thequestionaboutIvens share‘justlikeanybodyelse s’becomesmoreveritable,evenhandedandproductive.

Dass ein gutes Deutschland blüheThe tenth anniversary of the German Democratic Repub-liconOctober7th,1959wasplannedtobecelebratedwiththepresentationofafeature-lengthfilmthatwasdifferentfromanythingpreviouslyproduced.GustavWilhelmLeh-mbruck,headofthescriptdepartmentattheDEFAStudioforDocumentaryFilm,co-authorofthefilm,togetherwithJoop Huisken, wantedto ‘show the humanbeing andthehumancondition’52whichwasthesameas‘tointerpretandarrangethesubject inapoeticway’.Thiswassomethingnewandatthesametimenotsonew.53Brechthadalreadypointedout:‘Asnecessaryasitistoproducefilmswhicharehalfreportageandasgoodastheymaybe,wealsoneedpoeticfilmsallthesame,thatappealtothemassesinadif-ferentway.’54

Thefilmwasdividedintofivestoriesfromavillage,ahugesmithy,asteelmill,theLeipzigTradeFair,theDresdenGal-lery, complemented and reflected through the war cem-eteryHalbe,amanifestationinBuchenwald,aglanceintothe People’s Chamber and the SED politburo and a long,peaceful exposition. The authors were well aware of therisksofproducingacompendiumfilm,thereforeabstainedfrom employing the conventional compiling cutback andbasedthefilmentirelyonthatspecialday,‘inordertogiveastrongerprofiletothethoughtoftoday sperspectivesofourRepublicandofeverysingleperson.’

ThescriptwasfinishedbytheendofMarch1959,thefilmwasshotbythemiddleofAugust,therewasaweekoftimebetweentheendoftheshootingandthevoicerecording,in which the raw editing had to be finished and the finalversionofthetextwasgenerated.Inamajoreffortbeyondcomparison, the commissioning date in the last week ofAugustwasmet.Therewerenofurtherobstaclestoadis-tributioninOctober.

Thephotography(WolfgangRandel,HorstOrgel)wasabso-lutelyexcellent, theportrayalsofworkingsituationscon-stitutedthebestthathadbeenaccomplishedinthisarea.The images from the world of work were not just visualdetailingofworkingprocesses,followingIvens work,theywereacloseapproximationtowhatdeterminestheexis-tence of the worker. He was ´down-to-earth , his picturethat of a creator, mover, ruler, he created the abundanceofthecountry:withphysicaleffortattheforginghammer,withbrainsatanautomaticchargingunit,withsensitivityamidstthealignmentsofthreadinthespinningmill,withprecisionatthenuclearreactorandintheaircraftfactory.Thiswasnotonlyallegedortalkedintoexistence,onecouldseeitandexperienceitinthegameandtheharshnessofreality,inimagesofunstrainedcalmnessandtremendousself-confidence.

ThenarrationwaswrittenandspokenbythepoetSteph-anHermlin.Hewasnottherhetoricalexecutorofgeneralknowledge, he did not put up a banner. He contributedto the film as an individual and respected the people onandinfrontofthescreenasindividuals,too.ThisattitudefounditswayintoHermlin svoice,itwasspiritandgestureofreflexionintheinstanceofachievingawarenessofthemoment,intheswingingoftheword,inthemelodyofthesentence.Hetranslatedthespiritofasubjectintotheges-tureoflanguage.Andmadethecommonuncommon.Thesentencesweresimpleandshort,sometimesjustaword,stickedtotheeventsandlefttheimageavailabletophan-tasy.Itwasavoice,hisvoice,thatkeptthefilmtogetherandprovideditwithasoul.

Atthefinalcommissioningdateatthestudio,allthepar-ticipants were deeply impressed, it was praised withoutendandevenrecommendedtobeclassifiedas artisticallyvaluable ,whichwasalreadydoneatthestateinspectionandapproval.ButatthepresentationforacommissionoftheSED sPolitburooftheCentralCommitteeinthemiddleofSeptember,towhichthefilmmakerswerenotadmitted,theapprovedandclassifiedversionwasstronglyrejected.‘Theentirepoliticalconceptofthefilmlackswhatweun-derstandasthecontentof´GermanDemocraticRepublic .’The studio received instructions for the revision of boththe part of the images and the text. ‘A new commentaryhastobemade,whichbearsaclearcharacteraccordingtopartylinesandaptforpublication.(...)ItwasamistaketoconsignalyricistlikeHermlinwiththistask.’55

Huiskenreceivedtheinstructionsforthechangesonpaper.Theymainlyconcernedthetext,whichwasnowwrittenbythepartypublicistKarl-EduardvonSchnitzler.Thechangedversion did not meet with any interest in the audiencewhenitwasreleasedhalfayearaftertheanniversary.Thecopiesoftheoriginalversionmadeforthecapitalistcoun-trieswereallowedtobeshownthere,buthadtobesentbackbyreturnofmail.

Thecreatorsofthefilmwerenotinvolvedinthisquarrel-ing.HuiskenhadupdatedHermlinaboutthenewversion,

assumingthathehadbeen informedabouttheoutcomeofthestory.However,thepeopleinchargehadeludedthisresponsibility. Hermlin recorded this prohibition in a filenote. ‘Thenarrationthat Iwrote for thedocumentaryontheGDRwasprohibited. Ittookexactlytwomonthsuntilsomebodytalkedtomeaboutthis;theonlyreason,Irepeat,theonlyreasontheprohibitorshavefoundtothisday,anditisonlytoojustifiedthattheydonotproducethisreasonwithoutawkwardness,saysthatthetextis´toopoetic ...’56

Therarecaseofafilmwiththesameimagesbutdifferentcommentaries brought one thing to light: Hermlin trans-latedfromthepoliticallanguageintothelanguageofpo-etry.Thiswasnotjustanexchangeofvocabulary,thepara-phrasingofterms,thefindingofornamentalwords.Itwastherecreationofaself-containedworld.Hesentedwhatitwasaboutandfulfilleditinthespaceofpoetry.Thatwastheonlywayitcouldappearbeforetheaudienceinitsfullmeaning. In Schnitzler s version, the images, which hadonlyjustbeenglowingthroughthewarmthofapoet,weredegraded and devalued by the costumary political lan-guage. For the third time in a row, after Vladimir Pozner(Lied der Ströme, 1954)andGüntherRücker(Du und man-cher Kamerad/You and Some Comrade, 1956,Director:An-drewThorndike),aDEFAdocumentaryhaddebilitatedtheproclamatory character of the commentary and searchedforanewrelationshipbetweenwordandimage,forseeingandthinking.Noneofthecaseshadbroughtaboutanyef-fectsconcerningthegeneralquality.

Huisken s film has to be placed within the internationalcontextofthetransformationofthedocumentaryfilmandoftherequestioningofitscapacity.Itreceivedanimmedi-ate�andunexpected�echoattheLeipzigWeekforDocu-mentaryFilmin1960whenthequestionofpoetrybecameacentralissueinthediscussions.WithLa Seine à rencontré Paris(The Seine Meets Paris,1957),JorisIvenshadbroughtacinematicdeclarationoflovethatdidnotneglectthesocialbackground, but instead of shaking its ´fist´ at the audi-

Filmposter Dass ein gutes

Deutschland blühe (1959).

© DEFA-Foundation, Berlin

Film promotion material Dass

ein gutes Deutschland

blühe (1959). Filmmuseum

Potsdam/N.J.H.

© DEFA-Foundation, Berlin

36 37October 2010 | 16October 2010 | 16

encepresenteda rose .Theclaimforpoetrybythisdedi-cated documentarist brougth together a strange factionofstateofficialsandfilmmakersagainstthis´betrayal´ofthepugnaciousdocumentaryfilm.Behindthisproblem,abasicchangeintherelationshipbetweenmanandsocietyandintheroleartsplayedintheEastandlikewiseintheWestasserteditself.Theutilizationofpoetryexceededthemerescopeofartsandshedaspeciallightonthepoliticalaspectofart.Poetrywasnotadeviceofart,butasocialre-lationship,aparticularrelationshipofmantohimself. Art,poetryasasouvereignacquistionofhistory,whichobtainsexemplary importance for the conscience of the people,for its communication about itself, its experiences andlongings.’57PoetrywastheindicatoroftheCopernicanRev-olutionofthewayworldandthesocietywereseeninthesixties.Thepoetsstrippedthepoliticaltermsandslogansoftheirendinitselfandplacedthemselvesasthenewend.This touched on the essential . In the sixties, they wouldfindouttowhatextentliteratureoccupiedthiswordandhowrigidlypoliticsdeprivedliteratureoftherighttodoso.Itbecamemoreandmoreclear-cut,Hermlinsummedupin1964,thattruepoetsdonotweartheuniformsofpre-fabricatedideas,but‘thatthepainfulstrugglesofourageforamorehuman,forapoeticsocietyareragingineverysinglepoemofeverysingleoneofthesepoets.’58Thiswayofequatingbothworldsofimaginationwasamajorquin-tessence of those years. A poetic strategy, the strategy ofpoetrywastobebasedonthis.

Huisken has never publicly commented on the history ofthisfilm,notevenontheinjurieshemusthavesustainedeventhoughtheattackwasnotdirectedtowardshim,buttowardsthestudioandthescriptdepartment. Itremainsuncertain if thefilm,had itbeenreleasedtheway itwasplanned, would have had a strong influence on filmmak-ing.Theworkers filmofHuisken simprinthititspeakandwassimultaneouslybroughttoaclosewithDass ein gutes Deutschland blühe.ThenewgenerationofDEFAdocumen-taristsdidnotcontinuetofollowthispath,butfoundtheirownsolutionsasdirectors,cameramenanddramaturgs,ofwhichJürgenBöttcher sfilmOfenbauer (Furnace Builders,1962)wasthestartingpoint.Butevenforthisone,Huisken

was the one who built the bridge59: Huisken had gottentoknowthedirectoroftheIronandSteelCombineinthehospital,hadheardabouttheplanneddisplacementoftheblastfurnacesandimmediatelyrecognizedthefilmicidea.Hehimselfcouldnotmakethefilm,sohegavetheideatoJürgen Böttcher. This again was due to a concealed rea-son:Böttcher sdebutfeatureDrei von vielen(Three Among Many,1961)hadbeenpoliticallythrownbackintothefacesof director and studio by the Department of Agitation oftheSED sCentralCommitteewithascandalbeyondcom-parisonandthenbeenprohibited.ThishadcastashadowonHuisken,too,whowasthementorofBöttcher sdirectorofphotographyChristianLehmann. ‘Thethreeofusweresitting together at a table, around us the whole crew. Itwashorrible.ThenwemeeklywenttoJoop splaceandsatthereforanotherhourwithoutknowingwhattodo.’60ThesuccessofOfenbauer alsoservedforhisowninnerrehabili-tationandasan indicationthathisworkwascarriedon.JoopHuiskenkeptthesynopsisof thisfilmfortherestofhislife.61

GermanCinematicArtHuiskenreceivedsomerecognitionforhisfilmmaking.Forthephotographyofthefirstdocumentaryfilmincolor,Im-mer bereit(Always Ready,1950),hereceivedthe3rdClassNa-tionalPrize.TheHeinrich-GreifPrizewasconferredtohimthreetimes:1stclassfor1952 – Das entscheidende Jahr(1953),3rd class for Turbine I (1954) and 3rd class for China – Land zwischen gestern und morgen (1957).Hereceivedalltheseprizes´inacollective .Thatreducedtheprizemoney,butitemphasizedhisroleinthefilmcrews.

After the first recognitions, his name resounded beyondthesmallcircle.Hewasthencalledintocommittees:Sec-tionFilmattheCommitteeoftheSocietyforGerman-Sovi-etFriendship(1953),ArtisticCouncil(1954)andtheAccep-tanceCommitteeoftheStudio(1958),FilmAdvisoryCoun-cilfortheMinisterofCulture(1970).HejoinedtheClubofFilmCreators(1960)andbecameamemberoftheClubofCreativeArtists(1961).

HisadmissiontotheEditorialBoardofGermanCinematicArt (1959) was the real step into the public. There, he en-couraged a more persistent and deeper examination ofdocumentary film in order to put an end to its isolationand turn it into a matter of discussion between film art-ists,criticsandaudience.‘Ourdocumentariesgenerallydonothavethevaluetheyshouldhave.’62Eventheoutstand-ingcontentscouldnothidethisfact.‘Ithappensveryoftenindeedthatpeopleforgetthatafilmconsistsofmovingim-agesandthatonehastoworkaccordingtothelawsofthemovingimage.’Whichpossibilitiesremainedfordocumen-taryfilm?‘Thosethatcontaintheattempttorestartmak-ingart,documentaryfilmart.(...)Thereforeit sthehumanproblemswehavetoturnourattentionto.’63

Thebasicproblemwasthatdocumentarieshadtodisen-gagefrombeingadescriptionandshowaninterestinthecourseofevents.Thecourseofevents,however,wasalwaysa course of dispute, therefore: conflict. ‘We have alreadytriedtogiveexpressiontoconflictwithdocumentaryde-vices on many occasions without having fully succeeded.Duringtheconflict itself thecameracanhardlyeverbeawitness,andthat iswhytheconflictcannotbevisualizedwithout reconstruction.’64 Documentarists had adoptedthismethodfromeducationalfilmandconverteditintoaneffective means that helped up its cumbersome technol-ogy.However, itwasnot justamatterof technology,but

alsoandpredominantlyoneofdoctrine.Notionsofimpactand objectives of the genre were looked for outside thefilms. ‘The main function of documentaries has to be topayattentiontoproblemsofthosesocialgroupsthatareunited by a common idea or the struggle against a com-monthreat.’Filmturnedouttobeameanstoproclaimadoctrine,propagatepolicy,popularizecertainstandards.65Itwasforcedintoafunctionalitywherepropagandacount-edinsteadofstudies,know-allmannerinsteadofinsight,paternalism instead of exchange of experiences. Howcould,undersuchcircumstances,conflictbeclaimedasaconstitutiveelementofdocumentariesaswell,howmanas his own creator? How could one even think of realismasabasicattitudeinordertoachieveadocumentary?Thepathpreviouslytakenhadcometoitsend.Everythingbacktothebeginning?

‘Everyworkerhascertainjobcharacteristicsabouthimthatare well-known and that the audience notices. These jobcharacteristicscannotbeportrayedbyanactorwithoutlossofveracity.However,cautiousdirectionoftheworkersthatarisesoutofthesituationoftheproductionprocesscanbebeneficial.’Thiswasopposedbythefactthatthetechnicalapparatuswasanalienelementwhenitenteredafactory.‘Thisiswhythedocumentaristhastomakeanefforttotakea position that turns him into a part of the enterprise.’66Thiscanonlyworkoutwhenheknowswhathewants inthefaceofaworkerwhoknowswhattodo.Firstofall,thefilmmakerhastounderstandwhatishappeninginfrontofhiseyes.Aworkerputshisforce(andbrains)intoaproduc-tionprocessattheendofwhichthereisaproductorthepartofaproductthatismorethanitwasbeforebecauseoftheworkdone.Thisiswhathappenseighthoursaday,fivedaysaweekandfiftyweeksayear.Therefore,powerhastoberationed.Forthatveryreasonaworkerworkswithpru-dence,doesnotwasteenergy,doesnotsquandermaterial,looksaftermachine,toolsandequipment.Thefilm-workerHuiskenknewwhathewantedtoshoot,hemeasuredhisshotswithexactitude,didnotuseupmorefilmmaterialthannecessary;hisshootingratiowasexemplary.Thisdis-ciplinewasnotacorset,itallowedhimtotakealternativedecisionsonlocationortoviolatetherules.Themainissuewasto‘notjustdoanything,butshootonlythoseimagesofwhichyoucertainlyknowthatyouwillneedthem.’Forthis,a standpoint was needed. To quote Huisken: ‘The stand-pointdeterminestheperspective.’Thestandpointwasnotonly a political question. The standpoint was importantattheshooting,itdecidedwhetherthecamerawouldseeanything and what it would see. Huisken s spoutings onthiswerenumerous. ‘Youhavetotakeafirmstandpoint.Yourstandpointwilldeterminetheperspectiveyouhave,thewayyouseethings,thewayyouthinkandyourattitudetowardswhatyouhavetodo.Partofthisstandpointisthatyouhavetobehumanand,likeahuman,haveasocialat-titude.Youhavetobeahumanbeingthathastoattemptto know as much as possible, to gain experience and toget to know his technology to the extreme.’ The exampleofZuidersee lasteda lifetime. ‘Nowadays,yousometimesseethattheoperationplaysaleadingpartandthehumanbeingisjustaconcomitantphenomenon.Ithastobeviceversa.Theprimaryaspectofthewholeprocess,oftheop-erations,arethehumanbeings.(...)AndIbelievethatthisisthemostimportantaspectfordocumentaries,thatonestartsoutfromthehumanbeingandhispsyche,fromthephysiognomyandthenatureofahumanbeing, fromhischaracter,howitisshapedbyhisoccupation.’67

HuiskendidnotconsidertheDEFAStudioforDocumentaryFilm to be in the condition for such an artistic advance.‘Unfortunately, in our studio nobody cares if you make afilmquickly,ifyoudoagoodorabadjoborifyouareslow.Thosearethingsthatdonotplayapartintheevaluation.The only decisive aspect is the continuous pursuit of ap-pointmentsandmeters.(…)Ibelievethattherearefewpro-ductionsiteswhereeverythingproceedsasindividualisti-callyasitdoeshere.Wedonotevengettoseethefilmsourcolleaguesmake.Everythingisbasedoncoincidence.Thatiswhytherearenoartisticdiscussionsanddebatesaboutour work and our problems. One could even say that ourstudioisnotaproductionsiteofart,butaproductionsiteofmeters.(…)Idonotthinkthereareanyartisticassistantsin this studio who are familiar with even a small part oftheforeignproduction. Inthelongrun,however,this isacompletelyintolerablestate.’68

Evenadecadelater,hewrotedown:‘Somebodyshouldin-vestigatetowhatextentthecomplacencyoffilmmakersintheGermanDemocraticRepublichasaninfluenceontheeffortandintensitytheyapplyduringtheirworkactivities.Onceyouhavegainedafootholdinfilmproduction,youaresuretogetbyquitecomfortablyfortherestofyourlife.(…)Itisextraordinarilydifficulttomakegoodfilms.Extraordi-naryfilmsarerarelymade.’Howraisetheproductiontoahigherlevel?‘Notbyorganizingaconferenceonceortwiceayear,butconfrontationanddiscussiononadailybasis.’69

TheprofessorIntheGermanAcademyofFilmArtinPotsdam-Babelsberg(foundedin1954,since1969AcademyforFilmandTelevi-sion),documentaryexerciseswerepartofthescheduleforeverybody,buttheycouldnotreplaceaspecificformationfor documentaries and popular scientific film. The Min-istry of Culture sent a signal by bestowing the academictitleofaprofessorupon JoopHuiskenontheoccasionofhis60thbirthday(1961).Withthishonour,theGDRfirstofalladorneditself.ToHuisken,itwasanawkwardsituation.‘Timeandtimeagain,theytrytotheorizeaboutdocumen-tary films, to draw comparisons of films with completelydifferentcontents,notonlythematicallybutalsoconcern-ingtheirfunction.(…)Iftheyattemptedtofindatheoryfordocumentariesthatwaslikeaninstructionmanualfortheproductionofdocumentaries,thenthiswouldstopthein-dividualtreatmentoftopicsandnarrowdowntheversatilepossibilities.’70Thegrantingofthetitlewasanornamentalsolution,butwasitalsoafunctionalone?

HuiskenhadbeencommittedtotheAcademyofFilmArtsince1958,initiallyasamemberoftheCommissionofEx-perts forCamerafor theentranceandthefinalexamina-tions,since1961astheleaderofthecameradivisionwithteachingassignment.Hemadehimselfscarce,accordingtothestudents memories,hewasthere,butstillnotthere.Hewastoomuchofapractitionerthantobetemptedbyapermanentuniversityjob.Hedidnotfeelresponsibleforconcepts, curricula and regulations. ‘Every young personshoulddevelopaccordingtohisindividualpredispositionsandtalents,tohisownperceptions,hisstyle,otherwisewewillnevergetoutoftheoldrut.’71Beingamemberofthesenate, he critized the semi-official vocabulary ( educa-tionalwork ,´primeexamples , control´),sincetheyweretalkingabouthumanbeings.

The students certainly had to get used to his way of get-tingtotheheartofmatters.‘Onealwayshastothinktwice– once straight forward and then backwards. By think-

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ing, the essential part of the work is already done beforeyoushoot.’72Hedidnotseehimselfasateacherstandingin front of them, but rather as an older, experienced col-league. ‘When we are standing here opposite each other,accordingtowhat I feelandthink,this isthewrongposi-tion.Wehavetotrytostandnexttoeachotherandcomple-menteachother.Wehavetotrytoachievetheobjectiveswe have defined in a joint effort. (…) Now I would like totrytoexplainmystandpointintheareaofourfilmmaking.Subsequently,wearegoingtodiscussthisandIpleadyouto candidly express your opinion, because this is the onlyway we can understand and comprehend each other.’ Hewasnotuncritical,buthesawtheonusontheuniversity.‘During my first two encounters with this group of stu-dents,outoflackofknowledgeaboutthecircumstances,Iassumedtheirknowledgeandskillstobebetterthantheyactuallywere.Theywerelackingthemostelementaryskillsoffilmmaking.Inordertoachieveafruitfulfurthereduca-tion, it has to be tried to rectify this as soon as possible.(…) We need to wholeheartedly instruct them and makethemacquaintedwiththebasicknowledgeoffilmtechnol-ogy. Cameras, tripods, lenses: their application and theirpossibilities.Theiremploymentinpractice.Atallcosts,wehavetodemandthattheytakemorephotosusingcommonsenseandreason,asathoroughpreparationfortheirfu-tureworkwiththefilmcamera.Everybodytakesaphotoof(p.e.)thesameperson.(…)Thepurposeistodetect:Howdoweseeourenvironment?Howdoweuseandmakeuseofourtechnicalpossibilities?Howdowenarratesomethingusingimages?’73

Huiskendidnotgettiredofinsistingonstartingpointandobjectiveoffilmmaking.‘Youhavetoknowexactlywhyyouaredoingsomething�inordertomakemoneyorbecomefamous.That scompletenonsense,youdon´tgetanythingoutofthatandyoucan´tdoanythinggoodwithiteither.Youcanonlymakesomethinggoodwhenyouhonestlyandstraightforwardly stand by your subject, to your task, toyourselfandtoyourfellows.’ JoopHuiskenwouldnotbehimself,ifhehadnotaddedonefurthersentence.And,cor-rect,hedoesnotforgetit:‘Andthisstandpointwilldeter-mineyourperspective.’Hereallybindshisstudentstothis:‘Filmdesignwithoutpersonalinvolvementiscoldandin-comprehensible.Absolutelyfutile!Productiononlymakessenseifitisdoneforthegeneralgood,forthewell-beingofmankind.Forthepeople.Forthispurpose,it sself-evidentthatyouunderstandthelanguageandlearnfromthepeo-

pleyouaretalkingto.Languageisnottobeunderstoodasapurelylinguisticmatter,itmeansthatyouhavetobeabletogettoknowandcomprehendthewaythosepeoplefeelandsee.Youhavetobecomeoneofthem.’74

ThiswasputtothetestwiththedocumentarySchweißer-brigade (The Welder’s Brigade, 1961), that was set at theWarnowshipyardinRostockandforwhichthegraduatesRenate Drescher (dramaturgy) and Christian Lehmann(camera)wrotethescript.Bothspentsometimelivingwiththeworkersandlearnedweldinginordertounderstandtheworkroutineandbeabletoseefromthisperspective.Theresultexceededallexpectations. ‘Thevisualpartandthecompositionofthefilmrevealthathere,aqualityaboveav-eragecanbeanticipated.’75ChristianLehmann:‘Wehadn´texpectedthatthismanwhohadbeenhonouredwithsuchhighdecorationswouldtakecareofusinsuchanuncom-plicatedmanner:aboveallanunselfishway!Hedidn´tcareto make us assistants, directors, cameramen who couldservingly stay at his side, from the very first moment hewasconcernedtomakeusstandonourownfeet,topre-pareusforourownways.Healwaysremainedsteadfast,evenwhenthereweredifficultiesandthereforehisatthattimestillverybroadbackbecamenecessary.’76WithChris-tianLehmann,JürgenBöttcherandothergraduatesfromtheacademy,anewgenerationofcameramenanddirec-torswithanewmotivationsteppedintothestudio.‘Atthattime,wewerelookingforsomethingthatdidnotexistyet’,JürgenBöttcherrememberedandnamedthefewmodels:‘WesawHugoHermann sStahl und Menschenwithgreat-estexcitement,alsoTurbine IbyJoopHuisken.’Thesefilmsrepresentedthebatonthatwaspassedfromthefoundinggenerationtothegenerationofthesixtiesthatprogram-maticallylinedup‘toreportonthelifeoftheworkers’.TheoutcomeofthiswasastylethatwentdowninhistoryastheDEFAstyleofdocumentaryfilmsandthatwithitscodeofethicsacquiredbrandvalue

Huisken s significance for the new generation cannot beoverestimated. They took up his slogans, consciously orunconsciously: Approach humans as a human (RichardCohn-Vossen), You have to know that it is needed (VolkerKoepp),Let smovesomething(KurtTetzlaff),Howseriousareweaboutfilmmaking(GittaNickel)77.Whenheenteredthestudiocanteen,hedidnotsitdownwithhiscolleaguesfrom the old times, but with the young ones. ‘He took agreatinterestinus,theyoungones,andweacceptedhim,becausewehadseenhimattheacademy’,saysWolfgangDietzel,whoworkedwithHuiskenasacameraman.‘Ithinkthatwasthemostimportantthingforusyoungsters:Therewassomebodywhohadalreadydeliveredsomething,whohadalreadydonesomething.Hesimplyhadanattitudeto-wardstheworld,butalsotowardsthisprofession,camera-man,whichfirstofallisaveryniceandnoblecraft.Ideally,artisthenaddedtoit.’ChristianLehmann:‘Irealizedthat,ifyouwanttomakedocumentaries,andIonlywantedtomakedocumentaries, that it is allabout gettingtoknowhumans,holdinghumansingreatrespect,andthosewerethefilmsIwantedtomake,thosethathavetodowithre-spectablehumans.And I thinkthatwith Joop ssupport, Ilearned quite a lot about this and was able to work withit.’Amongthemselves,theyoungsterscalledhim Joopje ,eventhoughtheycorrectlyaddressedhimasMr.Huisken,whilefortheoldcolleagueshewas´Hannes or Johannes .

The 6th International Leipzig Week of Documentary andShortFilm in 1963wasastrokeof luck.NexttoKarlGassasthechairmanandPeterBokor(Hungary),FransBuyens

(Belgium), Theodor Christensen (Denmark), Julio GarciaEspinosa (Cuba), Roman Karmen (Soviet Union), DerrickKnight(GreatBritain),JeanLods(France)andLudwigPer-ski(Poland),JoopHuisken,too,wasamongthehighlyquali-fiedmembersof the jury.This festivalbroughtabouttheturn in the acceptance of new tendencies in documenta-riesthroughouttheworldandatDEFA.ThejurycrownedChrisMarkerandLe joli mai(The beautiful month of May)beareroftheGoldenDove,andChrisMarkeradmiredJür-genBöttcher sfilmStars,whichheconsideredtobe‘oneofthe greatest’, because it ‘reflects reality the way it is and(…) leadstheaudience(…)toacomprehensionoftherealworld.’78ForHuisken,whowasthere,thiswasaconfirma-tionthattheworksoftheforerunnerswereingoodhands.Furthermore,atthesamefestival,thefirstGermanretro-spective of Joris Ivens films was hosted. Huisken had towaitalmostanothertwentyyearsuntilhiswork,too,wasrecognizedasthatofthe´Trailblazers inaninternationalretrospective.Leipzig,inthemeantime,becamethemeccaofdocumentarists.ThisenabledDEFAemployeestogettoknow and compare international standards and satisfiedthedemandsHuiskenhadformulatedin1960.

ThelateworksInthelasttwodecadesofhislife,Huiskenshotmorefilmsthanintheyearsbefore,amongthesefavoriteworksthathehadalwayswantedtotakeinhandandcommissionedworksthatheexecutedinareliablemanner.Comparedtowhat he had previously done, the topics became smaller.Hisfatiguewasobvious,eventhoughhe‘stillwalkedup-rightlikeacandle’. Itwasnotgrantedtohimtoleapintothenewdimensionofdocumentarieswithcompositionoforiginalsoundsand16mmtechnology,asJorisIvensman-agedto.

Hepreferredportrayalsofwritersandartists,forexampleof Gerhard Hauptmann (1962) and Arnold Zweig (1963).However,compilationfilmswerenothisstrongpoint.TheMasereel film (1961) not only brought him together withthefamousartistandhiswoodcutseries,butalsowiththelegendarycollectorandrescuerofbooksTheoPinkusfromZurich,whowasthescriptwriterandwhoalsodevelopedtheideaandscriptforFremdarbeiter(The Foreign Workers,1964),astudyonimmigrantworkersintheFRG,whichinitsdetailswascorrect,butinitsgeneralizationmissedthepoint. Against the backdrop of the international summercourseofthePaluccaSchoolinDresden,aportrayalofGretPaluccaasadanceteacher(1966)wasproduced.

Alongside, films about history and art history came intobeing.Die Alliierten(The Allies,1966),afilmcommissionedby the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, stood out among thestate-commissioned works because of its reduced propa-gandistictinct.Choiceofarchivematerial,interviewpart-ners, montage and soundtrack were supposed to link upwiththepersonalexperienceoftheforeignaudiencesinanemotionally effective way. Commissioner and productionconditionsintheGDRwiththeirextensivenumberofcom-mittees,concepts,discussions,decisionsandordersdidnotpermittomakeasimilarlypersonalfilm.Frauen in Ravens-brück(Women in Ravensbrück,1968),afilmcommissionedbytheCommitteeofAnti-fascistResistanceFightersoftheGDR, remained within the bounds of ritualized memory.Huiskenwasunabletooverridetheseobstacles,thiswouldonlybeachievedbythenextbutonegeneration.AfemaleDutchcompanionhadbeeninternedintheConcentrationCampRavensbrück,oneofhisGermanfriendshabbeenex-ecuted:verypersonalreasonsforapersonalfilm!Lebendige

Traditionen(Living Tradition,1960)andDie Albrechtsburg in Meißen(The Albrecht’s Castle in Meissen,1972),thatservedasintroductionsintoarthistory,continuedwhathadbeenstartedbyWeißes Gold seit 1710(White Gold since 1710,1957),complementedbySchloß und Park Pillnitz (The Castle and the Park of Pillnitz,1970).Beforehetookupwithmuseumart (Mit Kerstin und Silke in der Galerie/With Kerstin and Silke in the Gallery, 1973; Bewahrt und aufgehoben/Pro-tected and Keept, 1976;Kleinplastik/Small Sculptures,1979),heturnedtowardsasubjecthewasnotyetfamiliarwith,lifeinthecountry:Schönes Land(A Beautiful Country,1963),Freie Bauern (Free Peasants, 1966), Notizen aus Berlstedt(Notices from Berlstedt,1967).Thelastfilmcausedcriticismbecause of his affirmation of the subject, an agriculturalproduction cooperative, and the relationships among thepeople.However, inthisdiscussionnobodytookintocon-sideration that Huisken had never conducted an analysisofmankindandsocietyinanyofhisfilms,buthadratherlookedforbeautyandrhythmofworkandworkingpeoplewithin functional structures. That was no whitewashing,butcinematicpoetryrelatedtoreality,andifanythingde-servedtobecriticized,thenrathertheaspectthatthispo-etrybecameindependentorattachedtothewrongorin-appropriatematter.‘Suchatopichasrarelybeenarrangedwithsomuchfeelingfortheeffectsofimages.79

InHuisken sworkandintheDEFAfilmproductioningen-eral,thefilmsDie Schöpfung(The Creation, 1966)andVom Wachsen(Above Growth,1966)occupiedaspecialposition,amajorconstructionsiteandashipyardasallegoriesforcreationandcreativity:filmsthataremoving,connecting,assembling, only guided by image and music. Ivens De Brug(The Bridge, 1928)salutedfromadistance.‘Inthefirstpart,everythingismovinghorizontally,thentheprocessespass into vertical operation.’80 As beautiful as they wereanddidnotfindequalsamongotherfilms,theystillmissedthetasteoftheaudience.Thesuspicionthatthismightbeanewkindofideologicalimpositionplayedaroleinthisandthedesiretospeakandhearplainlanguage.Thiscinematicculturewasnottrainedanddidnothaveanyculturalbase.Theonlyfilmofsuchkind,Mein Kind (1953),hadsufferedfrom this lack itself and had not been imitated. This wasdifferentinFranceandalsoinPoland;furthertotheeast,thefamousRigaSchoolofPoeticCinemacameintobeing.HuiskendidnothaveanysuccessinLeipzigwithsuchfilms,even when after the debate about politics and poetry indocumentaries(Faustvs.Rose)theexcitementhadcalmeddown.Denn das Meer steht hinter allen Dingen(Then the Sea Stay Back of all the Things,1967)onthe´Darss ,well-knownasbeach,artists colonyandprimevalforestbetweenBal-ticSeaandBodden,washis lastfilmwithamessageandan effect: untouched landscape, nature formed by men.Thefilmtookoverthevibrationsofthelandscapeanddis-solved them into image composition and film sequences.Thebeautyofthecircumstancesandrelationsinanaturalareaasanexpressionofhumanlonging.

Thelast-mentionedfilmsonceagaindrewattentiontothefactthatHuisken sfilmmakingwasneveronlycommittedto the content, but also wanted to fulfil formal criteria.Thosewhoconfusedoneaspectwiththeotherexchangedbeauty sartofdesignforanaffirmation spowerofpersua-sion.Huisken sexampleespeciallyshowsthattherelationofmeaningandformindocumentarieshardlypenetratedthegeneralconscience.AvoicelikethatofthefilmtheoristAlfredKrautzisveryrare:‘Huisken stalenthastwosides:First of all, his trained rationality, his logic, his technicalskillsandtheabilitytoreflectanoperationoraneventin

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anobjectiveandinstructiveway.Second,hisaffinitytoapoeticandpicturesquewayofcomposition,hisfeelingforthepoeticrhythmofthings,whilenosentimentalityorro-manticistaspectswouldevershinethrough.Huiskenhadaneyeforclearrelationsinspace,andthisalwayshelpedtobringtheelementsdepicted intoafirmstructure.Thesingleobjectis(...)alwaysinitiallysensedfromthevisualside, from the pictorial and optic standpoint, while theclearness of the structure the recorded images have isemphasized.’81

EpilogueThe Dutchman Huisken was one of the (most) importantdocumentaristsinGermanyinthefirsttwodecadesafter1945.Hisfilmsconstitutedabridgefromthevanguardofthe late twenties intothenewtimes,andthisevenmoreand even more strangely so since Joris Ivens, the avant-gardist per se, himself worked at DEFA. Bert HogenkampcalledHuiskena‘pioneerofdocumentaryfilm’82.Hedidnotformaschoolandhasneverreallybeenunderstoodandac-ceptedinhisimportanceinspiteofexternalhonours.ForwhatandwherebycouldHuiskenarousenewinterest?

The new German film83 had not set out in 1946 to winthe audience s favor at any cost. It went for their powerof judgement, in fact both concerning reality and itsportrayal in films. The path led from reflection to a criti-cal conscience and from there to self-awareness, and thispathwasthegoal.Thenewconceptsandoutlinesprovedtobeable to takethe loadofasocialwayof functioningandtakingeffectandofanartisticformofdocumentaries.Theapproachtodevelopanewmodel,paralleltotherhe-toricalonehandeddown,accordingtowhichfilmmakers,protagonistsandaudienceareallonthesamelevel,relatewitheachotheraspartnersandinacommonefforttrytofind out the truth, was not developed any further, prob-ablynotevenrecognized in itssignificanceandthereforewasted.Thisrobbedtheaudienceofsocialawareness,po-liticaldebateandaestheticalpleasure.Thetasktoliftthisblockadehadtobetoomuchforanysingleperson.Thisisexactlythereasonwhyitwassoimportantthatthereweresuchindividualswhoknewtheirtaskandwhoalwaysre-turnedtotheirrut.Simplytrailblazers.JoopHuiskenswasoneofthem.Hisbackgroundtoldhimthataworkerdoesnot educate another worder, but consults with him. Hehandeddowndifferentwaysoflifetotheaudience.Watch-ingclosely,everybodycouldlearnasyoucanalwayslearn

fromnarration–orrefrainfromit.Huiskenhadconfidenceinthenarrativepowerofanoperation.Andhehadconfi-denceinthecognitiveabilityoftheaudience.

As film history always goes, this legacy and its value hadtobeuncoveredagainduringthelateDEFAinvestigations.Not to mention the knowledge and the acquirement andhandlingofitintheoldFederalRepublicofGermany.Workand workers were not a subject there and, if at all, onlyfounditswayintofilmassupplementaryimagesineduca-tionalorindustrialfilms.Eveninthesixties,theWestGer-manfilmonlyhesitantly turnedtowardsthissubject,de-spitethepriorliteraryeffortsbyWallraffandvonderGrün,Wellershoff and Troppmann as well as the photo booksby Chargesheimer. With his Wilhelmsburger Freitag (Wil-helmsburg’s Friday, 1964)84, Egon Monk drew attention tothisdilemma,butthisfeaturefilmdidnotchangeneithertelevisionnorcinema.Forthetimebeing,theNewGermanFilm,thatsteppedupagainst grandfather scinema ,haddifferent objects and objectives. ‘The professional world,everyday life, has hardly been shown on screen in Ger-manmoviessofar.Eventheyoungdirectorswhowantedtorenewourcinema,arenoticeablysliding into isolationoradaption;codificationorconsumeristkitschtagged´jetgeneration´ seem to be the only alternatives at the mo-ment.’(WolframSchütte,1968)

Klaus Wildenhahn was the first one to seriously take upthistopicandgetanewartisticformfordocumentaryfilmout of it. While Wildenhahn s name and importance arenot in dispute in Germany, name and importance of Hu-iskenareunknownamongfilmmakersandfilmhistoriansapartfromafewinsiders.Inthisrespect,DEFAdocumen-tary film and with it Joop Huisken s works deserve to bereconcidered, because it is necessary to understand GDRfilmhistoryasapartofGermanfilmhistoryandcontinuewritingaboutit.

HuiskenstartedworkinginfilmsinAmsterdam,broadenedhistechnicalknowledgeatUfa,buthebecamearealdocu-mentaristintheGDR.Thisquestionisnotaimingataeu-logyofthisstate,itisonlyaskingforthecircumstancesoftimeandplace.Hewasnota´worldcineast ,butadirectoremployed at a state-run film studio. He was not a majorfilmmakerlikeAndrewThorndike,eventhoughhehadpro-ducedsomemajorfilms.Hewasnottheheadofanartisticworkgroupthatwasnamedafterhim.Heonlywantedtomakefilms.Notalwaysdidhehavethefreedomtochoosethe subjects and topics. But even the so-called commis-sionedfilmswerenot gaga ,asonewouldsaytoday.Hu-isken knew that Ivens had shot excellent films ´by com-mission ,andmaybeheevenrememberedacertainissueof the Filmliga, which he used to sell before the events85,inwhichHenrikScholteconsideredthefilmWij bouwen,acommissionedworkfortheGeneralAssociationofSkilledConstructionWorkers,asanotherproofofthefact‘thatIv-ens,thefilmworker,canbestworkwiththestimulusofacommission .86

Huiskenexertedaninfluencethroughhispersonalityandhisfilms.Seenfromthedistanceoftheyears,thebestonesstillexist,beingdocumentsofthetimeandevidenceoftheart to produce contemporary documents. An artist s lifebetweendeparture,adaption,compromiseandstubborn-ness.Ivens lifewasthesame,thiswasnotfunfamiliartoanybody.

This is not about defending Huisken against himself. Hewas a committed communist, friend of the Soviet Union,activesympathizerwiththeGDR.Thiswasnothisreasontomakefilms,butviceversa,hisviewoflifeandfilmbroughthim to these movements and circumstances. He did notfloatwiththetide.Hedidnotneedthe´workers’andfarm-ers’state´inordertomakefilmsonworkersandfarmers.Hewouldhaveshotthesefilmsanyway.Hesharedhiside-alsandillusionswithother,moreeminentcontemporaries,who rectified their errors and aberrations through workwithoutbetrayingorabandoningtheiroriginalplan.Theylived out their frustrations and deceptions, they gave up,failedorcontinued.

Oneyearbeforehisdeath,JoopHuiskenmadeastatementtotheStaatlicheFilmdokumentation(SFD,StateFilmDocu-mentation)aboutthebeginningsofDEFAandfilmmaking.Lookingatthis,weknowthewayhelookedandspoke.Andwehavethequintessenceofhisfilmmaking.

‘Finally, I have something to tell about Joop that may befunny’, says Christian Lehmann. ‘Once, I had to go to theclinicinBerlin-Buchandonmywayback,itwasmidsum-mer,veryhot,Ithought,gosh,youcouldstopbytheceme-teryandcheckuponJoop,hereallydeservesit.SoIgothere,andabouttwometersawayfromhisgravethereisalawnsprinklerthatalwaysturnsaroundandinordertogettohisgraveIhadtogetcloseandpassandthenagaingetcloseandpassandIgotsoakingwet.AndIheardJoopgiggling.’

1 Alfred Krautz, ´Joop Huisken’, in: Filmdokumentaristen der DDR, Berlin 1969

2 Bert Hogenkamp, ‘Ein Pionier des Dokumentarfilms. Zum Tode von Joop Huisken’, Film und Fernsehen (F.+Fs.), 10/1979; Rolf Richter, ‘500 Millionen Mark und ein Film’, F.+Fs 10/1979

3 Joop Huisken, ‘Wir sind gestartet, um vorwärtszukommen’, in: ‘Allt-ag des Dokumentarfilms. Erinnerungen an die Jahre des Anfangs 1946-1950’, compiled by Günter Jordan, Podium und Werkstatt 24 (1987) (herafter: Alltag)

4 Curriculum vitae Johannes Huisken, 2-7-1950 [BArch DY 30/IV 2/11/v.2293]

5 André Stufkens, Joris Ivens Weltenfilmer, Nijmegen 2009, p. 97 (hereaf-ter: Stufkens)

6 Joop Huisken, in: Alberto Cavalcanti, Berlin 1962, S.46 (hereafter: Caval-canti)

7 Curriculum vitae Huisken, I.c.8 Ibid.9 Cf. Auslandswoche 612/194310 Kees de B. Tells about this in hisreport ‘Ik werkte in Duitsland’ (Am-

sterdam 1945, FMP-S); from recent literature: Almuth Püschel, Ver-wehte Spuren. Zwangsarbeit in Potsdam (with bibliography), Wilhelms-horst 2002.

11 Ufa foreign worker, personal card 1945 [BArch, R 109 I/6428]12 ‘Alltag’, p. 7313 Huisken kept the Dutch nationality until his death. Information from

his son Peer Huisken, 10-07-201014 Letter from DEFA/Lindemann to SMAD/Dymschitz, 30-9-1946 [BArch

DY 30/IV 2/9.06/203]15 Letter from DEFA/Lindemann to Niederländische Militärmission,

4-12-1946 [BArch DR 117/21811]16 Johannes Huisken, ‚Bericht über Holland’, 3-10-1947 [BArch DY 30/IV

2/9.06/203]17 Curriculum vitae Huisken, I.c.18 Lehren aus dem Prozess gegen das Verschwörerzentrum Slansky’,

Neues Deutschland 1.9.195019 Curriculum vitae Huisken, I.c.20 Der Aufbau der Stadt Potsdam’, July 1946 [Stadtarchiv Potsdam 348]21 Die DEFA dreht für die Stadt Potsdam’, Märkische Volksstimme 6.6.194622 Märkische Volksstimme 11.11.194623 Bevorstehende Uraufführung des Potsdam-Films’, Märkische

Volksstimme 16.11.194624 Ibid.25 Stufkens, p. 21 26 Alltag, p. 75 27 Alltag, p. 7228 Alltag, p. 8429 Alltag, p. 81 30 Alfons Machalz, ‘Mein Kind, As i fit were Ivens’ Child’, in Joris Ivens and

the Documentary Context, Amsterdam 1999, p. 10731 Richter, I.c.32 Richter, I.c. 33 Letter from Joris Ivens to Joop Huisken, 7-6-1948 [BArch DR 1/4506]

34 Hans Schoots, Gevaarlijk leven. Een biografie van Joris Ivens, Amsterdam 1995, p. 320 (hereafter:Schoots)

35 Cavalcanti, p. 4636 Schoots p. 7437 Letter from DEFA/Wegner to MfK/HV Film, 22-12-1954 [BArch DR

1/4200]38 Ibid.39 Correspondence Procinex–DEFA Studio for Newsreel and Documen-

tary Films, 1954-1956 (BArch DR 118/1872)40 ‘Vertrag Procinex–DEFA’, 1-1-1955 (BArch DR 118/1872)41 Letter from DEFA/Wegner to Huisken, 29-1-1955 (FMP-S, NL Huisken)42 Letter from DEFA/Wegner to MfK/HV Film43 Ibid.44 Contract Procinex–DEFA Studio for Newsreel and Documentary Films,

December 1956 (BArch DR 118/1872)45 ‘Hinter der großen Mauer’, Film-Echo Nr. 78/195946 Stufkens p. 22647 Schoots p. 34448 Joop Huisken, quoted in: Hans Wegner, ‘Joop Huisken’, Deutsche Film-

kunst (DFK) 6/195749 Joris Ivens, quoted from: Vorfrühling, 195850 The female writer Alex Wedding, author of the film, had lived in Pe-

king with her husband, the author and ČSR ambassador F.C. Weisko-pf, between 1950 and 1952. The much-read narration ´Das eiserne Büffelchen´ (The Iron Buffalo, 1951) stemmed from this time. On her script with the title Schatz der Erde und weißer Schnee (Treasure of the world and white snow), she had taken a note: ‘In memory of F.C. Weiskopf. He loved the New China.’

51 Joop Huisken / Alex Wedding, ‘Bericht’, 24-7-1958 [Filmmuseum Pots-dam, Collection, Legacy Huisken (FMP-S, NL Huisken)

52 Gustav Lehmbruck, ‘Strengere Masstäbe für unsere Dokumentar-filme’, DFK 2/1957

53 Id., handwritten note, without date (1958) [BArch DR 118/2101]54 Brecht, Texte für Filme I, p. 31655 Report on the presentation (...) before members of the politburos,

25-9-1959; Memorandum on the presentation of the film, 29-10-1959 [BArch DR 117/v.S 100]

56 Letter from Stephan Hermlin to MfK/Wendt, 19-1-1960 [BArch DR 1//7729]

57 Sylvia Schlenstedt, Stephan Hermlin, Berlin 1985, p. 14558 Stephan Hermlin, ‘Lektüre’, Berlin 1973, p. 24959 I owe this information to Christian Lehmann, who to this day calls

Huisken his teacher60 Christian Lehmann, ‘Joop Huisken’, Sonntag 16/1979 (29.4.1979) (her-

after: Lehmann) 61 ‘Blast furnace III, Synopsis, 1962 [FMP-S, NL Huisken]62 ‘Regisseure antworten der Redaktion , DFK 3/19663 Joop Huisken, ‘Menschliches Erlebnis mit künstlerischer Gestaltung

verbinden’, DFK 4/196064 ‘Regisseure…’, I.c.65 Jerzy Bossak, ‘Authentie und Wahrheit im Dokumentarfilm’, film-Wis-

senschaftliche Mitteilungen (FWM) 1/‘196366 Joop Huisken, ‘Menschliche Erlebnis…’, I.c.67 Alltag p. 74, 7268 Joop Huisken, ‘Menschliches Erlebnis…’, I.c.69 Joop Huisken, ‘Notiz’, 13-12-1971 [FMP-S, NL Huisken]70 Joop Huisken, ‘Notiz’, 13-12-1960 [FMP-S, NL Huisken]71 Joop Huisken, ‘Menschliches Erlebnis…’, I.c.72 Alltag p. 7273 Joop Huisken, ‘Notizen’, 1962 [FMP-S, NL Huisken]74 Joop Huisken, ‘Seminar.Ms’, 1966 [FMP-S, NL Huisken]75 BArch DR 118/255776 Lehmann, I.c.77 Dokumentarfilm-Fernsehpublizistik-Publikum, F.+Fs. 2/197678 Chris Marker, ‘Beitrag auf dem Freien Forum in Leipzig’, (FWM)

1/1964, p. 20179 Krautz, p. 29080 Joop Huisken, ‘Die Schöpfung’, 30-12-1965 [FMP-S, NL Huisken]81 Krautz p. 29182 Hogenkamp, I.c.83 Cf. Christiane Mückenberger/Günter Jordan, ‘Sie sehen selbst, Sie

hören selbst...’ Die DEFA von ihren Anfängen bis 1949, Marburg 199484 Wolfram Schütte 1968, in: Klaus Wildenhahn, Retrospektive, Leipzig

199085 Schoots, p. 5286 Henrik Scholte, ‘Joris Ivens ‘, Filmliga 2/1929, quoted in: Joris Ivens,

Berlin, 1963, p. 210.

Günter Jordan is filmmaker and filmscholar. His dissertation at the

Humboldt University in Berlin was about the early DEFA-documentary

films and newsreels. During the years he became thé specialist scholar

on the history of DEFA. In 1996-2000 he published, together with Ralf

Schenk Schwarzweiß und Farbe. DEFA-Dokumentarfilme 1946-1992 and in

2009 DDR. Daten Fakten Strukturen (Filmmuseum Potsdam 2009), reviewed

as ‘Der Grosse Jordan’: ’The Big Jordan’. He loves to make documenta-

ries about live music.

Cover Günter Jordan:

Film in der DDR.

Hg: Filmmuseum Potsdam.

580 Seiten, geb., 45 €.

ISBN 978-3-9812104-2-2,

Joop Huisken. Joris Ivens and

Jürgen Böttcher discussing

in a café during the Leipzig

Documentary Filmfestival,

1963. Coll. Filmmuseum

Potsdam/N.J.H.

42 43October 2010 | 16October 2010 | 16

Indonesia Calling: JorisIvensinAustralia

Indonesia Calling: Joris Ivens in AustraliaisAustralianWrit-er-Director,JohnHughes’visuallybeautiful,groundbreak-ingdocumentarydetailingtheconfusion,fearandsurreal-isticbeginningsofanabruptandcontestedendtoanageofNetherlandsimperium,andofthepositionthatIvens’film,Indonesia Calling, occupies in that interregnum. Hughescertainlytakesthelongroad.DistillingthestoriesofIvens’life, the historical background to decolonisation, and themakingofIndonesia Callinginto90minuteswasalwaysgo-ingtobeamammothundertaking,evenforafilm-makerofHughes’abilityandsensibilities.However,astheresultingfilmshows,althoughHugheswasawareoftheenormityofthetaskhewasclearlyundauntedbyit.

Itisobviousthatanextensiveamountofresearchandre-flectionunderpinnedandinformedHughes’methodology.Indonesia Callingwasmadeinsupportofanautonomous,self-governingIndonesia,atacriticaltimewhentheAllieswere engaged in the serious and unlovely business of at-tempting to gain control of the decolonisation process intheformerNetherlandsEast Indies.Onalargerstage,thefilmwasatthevanguardofanemerginggenreinpost-warfilmsdealingwithdecolonisationasEurope’scolonialem-piresfoundtheirpowersfragmentedanddiminishedandstruggledtonegotiatetherealpolitiekofthetwinhistori-calthemesthatemergedtodominatethepost-warperiod,DecolonisationandColdWarWorld.

Here is where Hughes’ grasp of the nuances of the topicand mastery of his craft ensure that while the viewer ismadeawareoftheobstacles,ratherthanactasdistractionsthey serve to complement the viewer’s journey and drawthe audience into the film as active participants in nego-tiating such complex and polarising topics. The structureof the film is created through interplay between a seriesofiterationswhichshiftbetweeninterview,excerptsfromIndonesia Calling, primary visual and document sources,andvoiceover,whichcoalescetoconstructaseriesofpoeticmetaphorsandreal lifeencounterswiththekeyprotago-nists.TheeffectistoreducethedistancebetweenIvensand

hisaudiencetoproducea formofhaptic imagerysothatratherthanusingthescreenasbigcanvas,thecamerabe-comesanextensionofHughes’senses,andprobesintothemanylayersofmeaningassociatedwithaliminalhistoricalmoment.

However,thisapproachcanbeJanusfacedasthefilmdoesnotconformtoafamiliarfilmlanguage,andtheresult isthatthisisnotaneasyfilmtowatch.Thecollaborationbe-tweenHughesandhisEditor,UriMizrahi,putsoneinmindofClaudeLéviStrauss’snotionofthecollisionofdisparateyet intersecting universal forces of nature, epitomised bythe bricoleur and the engineer. There is an engagementwithputtingpre-existingthingstogetherinnewandunfa-miliarwaysrunninginparallelwiththeprocurementofthenecessarytoolsandmaterials.Theresultdoesnotarriveatasynthesisof ideas,butratheroffersa layeringof imageandtexttocreatemeaningwhichisthickanddenseinthefashionofsymbolicanthropology.

Indonesia Calling: Joris Ivens in Australiaisafilmthatneed-edtobemadeandJohnHughesandtheEarlyWorksteamshould receive high praise for their labours. Hughes doesnotshrinkfromrenderingasantiquariannit-picking,aper-sistentcriticismofIvens’useofrecreatedscenes,enablingtheviewertodecidewhetherthismattersgiventhemuchbroaderimportanceofthefilmanditsplaceatthathistori-calmoment.Thentherearetheexquisitemomentsofab-surdirony,suchastherevelationthatIndonesia Callingwasbeingplayedincinemasbacktobackwith‘GonewiththeWind’ in 1947 Republican held areas of Indonesia, duringthebloodycampaign leadingtofinal recognitionof Indo-nesianindependencein1949.Despitehisself-deprecatingcommentsthathiswork is too long,arcane,andminorityaudiencework,IsuspectthatHugheshaselevatedIndone-sia Calling beyondtheprovinceofapartisancivilrightsandlabouraudiencetoalargerandbroaderconstituency.Indo-nesia Calling: Joris Ivens in Australia wasnominatedforthe2010FoxtelAustralianDocumentaryPrize,wastheWinnerofBestDocumentaryPublicBroadcast,andisanomineebytheAustralianDirectorsGuildfortheawardofbestDocu-mentaryFeature,tobeannouncedonSeptember23atStarCityinSydney.

‘…A Valparaíso:documentarybetweenpoetryandsocialcritic.’

Thefilm‘…à Valparaiso’(1963),directedbytheDutchmas-ter of documentary, Joris Ivens, has become legendary inChile. As Chileans, we are aware it exists, but know littleelse about it and almost nothing regarding Ivens’ intri-guingvisittoChile.SonowwestartedIvensresearchattheFilmschooloftheUniversityofChileinSantiagodeChile.

WhenhecametoChilein1962,invitedbytheUniversidaddeChiletogiveaseriesoftalkstoyoungfilmmakersfromthe Centro de Cine Experimental, Ivens was at the highpoint of his career. His time in Chile produced a creativestorm,whichwouldengulfPabloNeruda,ChrisMarker,Ja-quesPrévert,RaúlRuiz,SergioBravoandPedroChaskel,andothers.

Ivens’ relationship with Chile provides a chance to repairthedamagedfabricofChile’sculturalhistory.Themilitarycoupin1973broughtanabruptendtothecreativeflowoflocal cinema and left analysis of the explosion of activityduringthe1960sandearly1970spending.Therefore,Ivens’visitprovidesaplatformtoinvestigateaspectsofChileancinemaatthatkeytime.EvenbeforeIvens’arrival,Chileanfilmmakers had begun to regard cinema as a tool for so-cialandpoliticalchange,takingadeliberatesteptowardsaNewChileanCinema,andtowardsaconvergenceonthecontinentwithNewLatinAmericanCinema.For the historical background, the research initially focu-sedonseekingouttheyoungpeoplewhohadworkedwithIvens on the production of the films. Some of them, suchasLuisCornejo,RebecaYañezandFernandoBelle,hadpas-sedaway.Others,suchasJoaquínOlalla,PatricioGuzmánandGustavoBecerra,werescatteredacrosstheglobe.ThepermanentandunwaveringsupportofPedroChaskelwasimportant,aswerethelongtelephoneconversationswithJoaquínOlallainSweden.Thankstohisvividrecollections,andthepackageshesent,wewereabletobuildapictureofIvens’methodologyduringthemakingof…A Valparaíso.Because of Luciano Tarifeño’s generosity, we were able tofindoutabouttheworldofthepioneersofcinemainValpa-raíso.Althoughweexchangedafewwordsviaemail,itwas

toolatetomeettheChileancomposerGustavoBecerra.HelosthisbattlewithcancerinGermany,onJanuary3rd,2010,andleavestheanalysisofoneofthemostbeautifulmusicalcompositionsinIvens’filmographypending.

In 2009, as the Universidad de Chile’s Cineteca sought torecoveritsheritageforitspermanentreopening,wewereable to share in an important discovery. Hundreds of un-classifiedpageswerediscovered,includingdocumentsandnoteshandwrittenbyJorisIvens,withresearchandlocationinformation,filmingnotesandproductionlists.Beforeuswehadthegenesisofthecreationof…à Valparaíso.Aroundthattime,wealsoreceivedanenvelopefromCanadasentbyPatricioGuzmánCampos,oneofthedirectorsofphoto-graphyonthefilm.Itcontainedthefinalversionofthefilmscriptfor…à Valparaíso.Forthefirsttime,informationhadbeenfoundthatwouldallowthestoryofthecreationofthefilmtobetoldandwhichwouldrevealitsmethodologicalandaestheticrelationships.Butthesurpriseswouldnotendthere.WetravelledtoHol-land and discovered the images. In the city of Nijmegen,inthearchivesoftheEuropeanFoundationJorisIvens,wefoundphotographsofthefilminginValparaisoandlettersshowingthebondthatIvensmaintainedwithChileanfilm-makers,evenwellafterhislastvisittothecountry.

During the writing of this research, we began to under-standthatwewereinthemiddleofanopenareatryingtoestablishbridgestowardsatleasttwocardinalpoints-thepastandthefuture.Therelevanceofthefilmtodaystemsfromthefactthatitwasmadeinthetraditionoftheavant-garde,withthespiritofworkswhichseektoexploreratherthan keep to tried and tested forms. This makes sense tothoseofuswhobelieveinnon-fictionalcinemaasacontextforexperimentation,asanopenspace,aplacewhereoneshouldnotbeafraidtotakeriskswithcinematiclanguage.Inmanyways,…à Valparaísoisclosetocontemporaryformssuchasfilmessays,cinepoemsandotherhybridsthatpushtheboundariesofthegenretoexpanditshorizons.Webe-lievetheworksthatstandthetestoftimeservenotonlytoillustrate the past but become an active memory, able toexertan influenceandbeareferenceforfilmsseekingtoexaminetheworldtoday.

revisit

AUS

revisit

CHI

Joris Ivens and Australia

Cinepoem: a new Film Competition Cinepoem is a new trend in filmmaking. Ac-cording to Christophe Wall-Romana, profes-sor in French literature and main researcher of the poetry film genre, it is possible that some aesthetic features can be identified, but definitive principles are impossible to de-termine. He argues. that cinepoetry can take many forms. As a starting point, we have cho-sen the following definition: ‘A cinepoem is a film based on a poem, or a film that follows the form, aesthetics and rhythm of poetry.’

The European Foundation Joris Ivens, Winter-tuin (a Dutch pioneering production housecrossing borders between literature, poetryand modern art), and Go Short InternationalShortFilmFestivalNijmegen,willorganizethefirstCinepoemCompetitionbetweenthe16thand20thofMarch2011.ThecareerofJoris Ivensstartedwiththepro-duction of a cinepoem. Rain was filmed in1929andisnowincludedintheFilmCanonoftheNetherlands.Laterhemadeseverallyricalfilms such as ... a Valparaiso, Pour le Mistral and La Seine a rencontré Paris that won theGoldenPalmforbestshortatthefilmfestivalinCannes. Joris Ivenswantedtocreateanewpoetic cinematographic language and during

his career he encouraged new filmmakers toexperimentwithnewformsofcinema.Inthistraditionwewouldliketocurateaqualitysur-veyofcontemporarycinepoemsandstimulatea production environment that encouragesyoungtalent.The history of the cinepoem goes back to theearly days of film where surrealist Mallarmémadeafirstattempttobringfilmandpoetrycloser together. The film avant-garde in the1920’s with artists like Man Ray, Paul Strand,Fernand Léger and Joris Ivens created cine-poemsasanattempttoelevatefilmtoanartform.Nowadays the genre sees a revival. Becauseof a democratized means of production anddistribution,creativeproductionsandartistic

collaborationscanbefaster,cheaperandmoreeasy be achieved. This stimulated the fusionvariousdisciplines. It’sreflected intheriseofgraphicpoems,photo-stories,webcomicsandintherisingpopularityofthecinepoem.

Withthiscompetitionwewanttoaddresstoanewgenerationof‘cultureconsumers’.Justasthereisanewgenerationofcreators,thereisanew generation of readers /viewers. Where apreviousgenerationgrewupwithahandfulofpursuits,thisgenerationgrowsupwithamul-titude of media and expressions that requireattention.Inadditiontobooks,televisionandradio, new media like games, internet, socialnetworking, etc. This generation has not be-come illiterate, as some observe, but has be-

come multiple literate, we are used to moreinput from multiple (hybrid) media simulta-neously. The organizations consider the cine-poem therefore a form that is appropriate tothechangingdemandsofachangingaudience.Weexploreawaythatcanpresentpoetryandapoeticcinematographiclanguagetonewge-nerations.SinceseveralyearstheZEBRAPoetryFilmFes-tivalinGermanyisgivingseriousattentiontothecinepoem.Theirselectionproofshowinte-restingandwidethegenreofpoetryfilmcanbe.WearenowaimingforasimilarplatformintheNetherlands.RensvanMeegen

Call for entries: www.goshort.nl

RobertHamiltonTizianaPanizza

Joris Ivens and Chile

Joris Ivens, Filmstill …à

Valparaiso, 1963. Coll. JIA/

EFJI.

John Hughes, Filmstill

Indonesia calling, Joris

Ivens and Australia, 2009. ©

Early Works.

44 45October 2010 | 16October 2010 | 16

Hartmut Bitomskyisusedtoworkwitharchivalfootage.Deutschlandbilder (1983)isacompilationfilmthatfocusesonthecontentsofNazi’sculturefilmsthatprecededthefeaturefilmsinGermanmovietheatresbetween1933and1945.Theshortsrevealthatmenandwomenworkerswereidealizedandoptimismwasthegoal.WegettoseehealthypeoplewithhappyfacesandwithoutthemilitantparadesandimagesofHitlertheseclassicliesaredifficulttotackle.Bitomskyisworkinghardthough,inthisfilm,toshowusthetruthbehindtheseimages.Eagertodismantleit’seffectheoverloadsuswithnarration:‘Thisisacircumscriptionoftheirusageasdocuments,andassuch,theyareentrustedwithatwofoldfunction.Theyaresupposedtoshowhowfascismreallywas,theyaresupposedtosaywhatfascismsaidatthattime.Theoldmessage,oncemore.Butthistime,asamessageofterror.[…]And,simultaneously,theyaresupposedtotestifyagainstthemselves,asonewoulddoitwithagentswhodefectedandwereturned.Andtheyspeak,anditisafactthatwestillunderstandthem.Wearenotconfrontedwithsomeincomprehensiblebabbleorstammeringofaforeignlanguagewecannotworkout.´

ThenextBitomskyfilmisDas Kino und der Wind und die Photographie(1991).It’sakindofanthologyofdocumentaryfilm.Thefilmmakerandhisstaffinquirefreely,fromextractstocitations,ondocumentaryimagesandtheir‘truth’.WemeetTheLumierebrothers,Flaherty,

Ivens,RobertFrank,PeterNestler,JeanVigo,Bunueletc.AllcharacteristicsandprejudicesagainstthegenreofdocumentarypassbutluckilyBitomsky’sreflectionsgoesbeyondthescholarclichés.Everytopicisdealtwithinanoriginalandalwaysentertainingandenlighteningway.Whilethestaffcontrolsthevideoplayersthedirectorlectures.‘The Bridge,anotherfilmmadebyIvens.Itshowsaleverbridgeincarefuldetails.Justlikeadraughtsmanwoulddobeforeconstruction.Ivensdevelopedaplanofthebridgeandeachdetailrepresentsapicture,acamerashot.It’sasifthebridgeisbeingbuildbeforeoureyesforthesecondtime.Thisgavemetheideathatadocumentarydoesnotrepresenttruth.Itshowsushowrealityiscreated.Whatweperceiveisthecreationofreality,thecreationofasecondreality.’

This year’s edition of the International Seminar on Documentary Film in Serpa (Portugal) had a focus on the Archive-Image. The films that were selected all worked with previously existent footage. This year Hartmut Bitomsky (Germany), Edgardo Cozarinsky (Argentina) and Susana de Sousa Dias (Portugal) were present. Together with the audience they discussed the idea of gathering images as a return to an original state and, at the same time, as creative impulse. The archive as a (re)founding space.

Doc’s Kingdom 2010 The Archive-Image

Susana de Sousa Dias TheawardwinningPortuguesedirectorpresentedherlatestfilm48atDoc’sKingdom.Thefilmisaboutthe48yearsofdictatorshipunderSalazaranditwonthe´Grand Prix Cinéma du réel´attheinternationaldocumentaryfilmfestivalinParis.ThefilmisaseriesofarchivalphotographstakenfrompoliticalprisonersbythePIDE(Portuguesedictatorshipsecretpolice).

1Inyourfilmtheimagesareveryminimal.WeonlyseethefaceofthevictimsatthemomenttheirprisonphotowastakenbythePIDE.Whydidyouchoosetouseonlythisim-ageandmakealongfilmwithit?Wasitbecauseofpracti-calreasonsthatforcedyoutobecreative.Maybebecausethefootagefromthearchivewastoexpensivetouse,somethingthatwehaveheardoverandoveragainonthisseminar,ordidyouhaveotherreasonstoworkthisway?

Notexactly…Inthebeginning,afewyearsago,whenthePIDEArchiverejectedmyrequestforauthorizationtofilmphotographsofthepoliticalprisoners,Iwasfarfromun-derstandingthatthiswouldleadtoanewfilmbeginningtotakeshape.Inthefaceofmyinsistence,themanage-mentjustifiedhisrefusalbyinvokingthe«rightofimage».Hence,tofilmthephotographs,Iwouldhavetoobtaintheconsentofeachpoliticalprisonerindividually.Inthecourseofthis,Ispokewithdozensofpoliticalprisoners.Inevitably,Ibegantobedrawntotheirstories,sometimesaccompa-niedbycommentsmadeabouttheirownprisonerphoto-graphs:«LookatthejerseyI’mwearing»;«DoyouknowwhyI’msmilinglikethat?»,«Haveyouseenmyhair?».48wasembarkeduponwithasinglecertainty:thatitispossi-bletotellthehistoryoftheregimejustthroughthosepho-

tographs.OfcourseIhadlotsofdoubtsinthebeginningoftheprocess!Ididn’tknowiftheideawouldwork.Itwasaverydifficultprocess,toachievethefinalform.

2Formeasaspectatorsomethinghappensbecauseweseeeachface,fromthefrontandfromtheside,forseveralminutesandwelistentothepersoninthepicturenow,lookingbackatthattime.WithoutyoushowingitafterawhileIstartedtoclearlyseetheprisonandthetorturing.Isthiswhatyouintended?

Thewholeideaofthefilmistoputtheviewerlookingatthepictures,actuallyseeingthem.Beingforcedtowatchthemcarefully,beyondthesurface.Thisrequirestime.Asfarasthesoundisconcerned,thesameprincipleisapp-lied.Iwantthattheviewercanlistentothewordsthepriso-ners are saying, can listen them carefully, and that theyhavetimetothinkaboutthemwithinthefilmitself,duringthescreening.So,thewayIworkedtemporalityinthefilmisveryimpor-tant. I justwantedtogivetimefortheviewertomentallyinteract with the film so that he/her could create his/herownimages.

3Thenthereisacertainrichnessinthesound.Whatisstrikingarethesmallnoisesthatwehearbeforeaspeakerstarts.Theswallowing,heavybreathing,achairmovingacough.Soundsthatafilmmakerwouldnormallywanttoremovebutinthisfilmitworksreallywell.Whydidyouchoosetoleavethesedetailin.

WhenIstartedmakingthefilm,Ithoughtthevoiceshadtoberecordedascleanaspossible.Ievenconsiderthepossi-bilityofrecordingtheinterviewsinastudio.ButastudioisnevertheidealplacetointerviewpeoplespeciallythekindofinterviewsIusetodoandalsobecauseofthesubject.SoIfilmedinvariouslocationsaccordingtothepreferenceoftheformerprisoners.Throughoutthisprocess(filming,editing),Ihavebeennoticingthatthesenoisesthatyourefertowerefundamental.

Fortworeasonsmainly:Idon’tshowthefaceoftheformerprisonerstoday.Instead,Igivetheirpresenceinadifferentway:preciselythroughthistinysoundsthatnobodypayattention,thiskindofnoisesthatareunderstoodasim-perfectionsina‘straight’film.Nevertheless,thesekingofnoisesgiveusthephysicalpresence,thebodyofthepeoplethataretalking.Thesecondreasonisthatthesenoises,alongwiththenoisesfromtheenvironment(adogbark-ing,acar,aplane,alift,etc…)arecreatingthefilmicspace.

4Ivensisknownforbeingapoliticalfilmmaker.Theposi-tionthatyoutakeinyourfilmisclearlyinfavourofthepoliticalprisonersandagainstthetorturesofthedicta-torialregime.Idon’twanttocompareyourpoliticswithIvensbutwhenwetalkabouttakingapoliticalstance.

Whatdrivesyoutotakethisonesostrongly?

Portugalisundergoingaprocessoferasingthememoryofthedictatorship.Thepoliticalprisonersareinakindoflimbo;nobodyspeaksaboutthem,oratleast,onlyrarely.So,forme,thisisurgent,toworkwiththemwheretheyarestillalive.TorturesarenotdescribedinthedocumentsthatmakepartofthePoliticalPoliceArchive(ArquivoPIDE/DGS).

IsyouropinionsharedbythePortugueseingeneral?

MyfilmwasalmostignoredbythePortuguese.Whatwearewitnessing,asFernandoRosas,oneofthemostim-portantPortuguesehistorians,putsitisastruggleforthehegemonyofthememory.Inotherwords,astruggleaboutwhatwillbeconsidered‘realhistory’inthenearfuture.Asamatteroffact,therearetwomajoropinionsontheApril25threvolutionandwhatitmeantforPortuguesehistory.Onecampsaysthatrevolutionwasasanuprisingagainstanauthoritarianregimebasedonoppression,violenceandcontrolofpeople’smindandthereforepositive.Theothergroup-andinmyopinionthisinterpretationisespeciallynowgrowingstrongerandstronger–claimsthattherevo-lutioninterruptedatransitionalprocesstowardsdemo-craticsociety.Andthisgroupofpeoplecorrespondinglydeniestheviolentaspectofthe48yearsofPortuguesefascismandwantstokeepitburiedinthepast.

Filmstill 48, © Susana de

Sousa Dias, Kintop

Susana de Sousa Dias

receiving the Cinéma du reel

Award, 2010. ©Marion Saltel.

Filmstill Das Kino und der

Wind und die Photographie.

© Hartmut Bitomsky

Antonia Cunha Landscape

of Alentejo (Portugal) ,

surrounding the village of

Serpa. © artist

Screening room Doc´s

Kingdom, 2010, Serpa.

46 47October 2010 | 16October 2010 | 16

IvensfirstwenttotheUSSRin1930andshowedThe Bridge, Rain, Pile DrivingandZuiderzee Works.Whiletherehemetnumerousfilmmakersandartists,likethegraphicdesignerValentinaKulagina (thewifeofGustavKlutsis),whoevencreated a striking poster for Pile Driving and montageof several clippings with articles about Ivens’ films andGermaine Krulls’ photos. There was mutual interest andinfluence.1DocumentaryfilmmakerEsfir’Shubwasdeeplyimpressed by Ivens’ use of the Kinamo, also her camera,andparallelscanbedrawnbetweenhisearlyworkandher1932documentaryK.Sh.E. (Komsomol – Chief of Electricity),stylisticallyaswellasthematically.Shubnoted,admiringly,that Ivens’ audience of Moscow construction workerswished that Soviet films would have as strong a grasp ofthematerialastheforeigner’s.2

IvenslefttheUSSRkeentoreturnandmakeafilmthere.InplanninghisSovietdocumentaryfilminlate1931,uponhisreturn, Ivens visited many sites and made so many notesthat the resulting epic script about the Komsomol andindustrialization in the northern Caucasus, the Urals andCentralAsiawasdeemedunworkablebytheMezhrabpomstudio.InJanuary1932thefilmdirectorVsevolodPudovkinadvisedIvenstonarrowhisfocus.Shortlyafterthisitwassuggested that Ivens visit Magnitostroi, the blast furnaceconstructionsiteatMagnitogorskintheUrals.

Also in January 1932, to coincide with the initial firing ofthefirstblastfurnaceatMagnitostroi,themagazine‘USSRin Construction’ published the photo series ‘The Giantand the Builder’. The innovative propaganda journal waspublished in English, German, French and Russian, andaimed to ‘reflect in photography the whole scope andvarietyoftheconstructionworknowgoingonintheUSSR.’3The photographs were printed by retrogravure, whichgave a rich texture and soft-focus, making the imagesappear dramatic.4 The journal included much statisticaldata,presentedintheformofcharts,mapsanddiagrams(a result of the USSR’s adoption in 1931 of Otto Neurath’sViennaMethodofPictorialStatistics,theinfluenceofwhichisalsofeltinKomsomol).

‘The Giant and the Builder’, created by the journalistAleksandrSmolian,thephotographerMaksAl’pertandtheartistNikolaiTroshin,isa40-pagepropagandistic,narrative,documentary and ‘staged’ photo series, with a strikingcombination of text and image. Conventional layouts ofphotos and captions feature alongside photomontages.Theserieswascontroversialwhenfirstpublished,buthasbeen largely neglected since, despite being fascinatingbothideologicallyandaesthetically.5

Al’pert explains how he devised the narrative aboutMagnitostroi and Viktor Kalmykov: ‘The constructionsiteimpressedmegreatlyandIhadtheideatoshownotonly the birth of this‘giant’, but also the‘reconstruction’of a person who had come to work there’, a young manwith no education, training or ideological consciousness.The photo series begins with images of the undevelopedland with primitive huts and peasants visible, then onp.4 the river is depicted, whose energy will be harnessedfortheconstructionproject,andonp.5theyoungpeasant

Kalmykov is presented arriving on a crowded train inautumn1930.Thereaderistold:‘TogetherwithmanyothersVictorKalmikovleftforMagnetostroitotakeupnewworkandplungeintoanewlife’,anditisconstantlyemphasizedthat Kalmykov is a type, an individual who representscountless young men from collectivized state farms. Therestof theseriesshowshowKalmykov learns toreadandwrite, becomes politically conscious and joins the Party,marries, moves from a tent into barracks and then into aroom,andfinally isawarded theOrderof theRedBannerofLabour,andgivenasuitand tie,and is featured in thenewspaperMagnitogorskWorker.6Thecaptionofthefinalspread states: ‘many thousands have followed the samecourse.Anewmanmakeshisappearanceonthearenaofhistory,Socialistconstructioncreatesthisnewman.’

Theworkers’commitmentisvisuallysignifiedbyadouble-pagespreadonpp.24-25,whichshowsimagesoftheblastfurnace and the site to the left and the right of the foldbetweenthepages,andfeaturestheheadsandshouldersof11exemplaryworkersflowingdownfromthetopleftofp.24andacrossthebottomofbothpages,inanL-shape.Eachhashisnameandpositionwrittenbelowhim,Kalmykovisthelastoneatthebottomrightofp.25.Thetoplefthandcornerofp.24hasthefollowingheading:‘Comsomolblast-furnaceNo.2 – the pride of Magnetostroi’, below which it says: ‘Abrigadeofcomsomols(membersoftheCommunistYouthLeague)whohelpederectthefurnace,manifestedheroismandunboundedenthusiasmintheireffortstocompetethejobassoonaspossible.Theybeatallworldrecordsinsettingupblast-furnaces.Workwascarriedondayandnight’.This,inessence,isJorisIvens’Komsomol.

‘TheGiantand theBuilder’ isan important turningpointfor ‘USSR in Construction’, as it was conceived to be a‘mobilizing’photoseries,intendedtomotivateandinspirereaders to join the struggle for rapid industrialization,and to convince foreign delegations who ‘want to seespecific documentary evidence, not merely agitationalfacts’.7Thephotoseriesisaturningpointinthewayitwasphotographedtoo.Althoughitpurportstobedocumentarysome of the scenes were staged. In depicting the arrivalof Kalmykov as an uneducated peasant, Al’pert asked thenowliterateandsmartlydressedyoungmantoputonthesameoldclotheshehadgotoffthetraininandposeforthecamera.Al’pertwasvehementlycriticizedforthisbythosewho felt it undermined the authenticity of the piece, buthedefendedhimselfagainstaccusationsoffalsificationofreality by insisting that anyone can check that Kalmykovactually exists, anyone can find his address and can readabouthimin lettersfromhisco-workerspublishedin thenewspaper ‘The Magnitogorsk Worker’ (‘Magnitogorskiirabochii’) of 4th March 1932.8The‘reconstructed’ nature oftheseriesisevidentifoneconsidersthatthenewspaperisdated1932andKalmykov’sarrival1930,yetthephotographswere all taken in 1932.9 Al’pert was forced to defend hismethod of reconstructing reality for ideological ends,and the accusations reflect those Ivens was to face withKomsomol.

Aroundthetimeof‘TheGiantandtheBuilder’spublication,Ivens formed a collective to work on his film: a young

Komsomol and ‘The Giant and the Builder’

Construction and deconstruction This arTicle brings To lighT parallels beTween Joris ivens’ Komsomol and The ‘Ussr in consTrUcTion’ phoTo series ‘The gianT and The bUilder’, noT only in Terms of Theme (consTrUcTion), bUT also in meThods of creaTion (reconsTrUcTion or sTaging episodes). This fUrTher highlighTs The inTerrelaTionship beTween vangUard phoTography, liTeraTUre and cinema as well as The enormoUs significance of sTill phoTography for ivens’ filmmaKing.

MilenaMichalski

• opposite:

Maks Al’pert, Coke chemical

plant. Silos towers for coal’.

Photo ©Maks Al’pert

• Joris Ivens, Filmstill

Komsomol, 1933. ©JIA/EFJI

• Valentina Kulagina,

Press on Dutch Cinema

(compilation of magzines

with filmstill of Joris Ivens),

1929

• Nikolai Troschin, USSR im

Bau!, 1931.

48 49October 2010 | 16October 2010 | 16

Russian, referred to simply as Andreev, became the crew’srepresentative,andHerbertMarshall,anEnglishstudentatMoscow’sGIKfilmschool,whereIvenslecturedoccasionally,wasappointedassistantdirector,andIosifSkliut(astudentof Pudovkin’s scriptwriter) was the scriptwriter. In March,once the script had been approved (by the Komsomolcommittee, the script department and the Mezhrabpomstudiomanagement),theteamsetoffforMagnitogorsk.

Herbert Marshall explains the geography of the film:‘On the map two names stand out in great red letters:Magnitogorsk,Kuzbass.Magnitogorsk,onthebordersoftheUrals,Kazakstan,andCentralSiberia.[…]Theoneimportantraw material not found on the spot is coal, and that issupplied from Kuzbass. […] These were to be our objectstogether with Moscow as the centre.’10 As with‘The GiantandtheBuilder’, Ivens’mainsubjectisMagnitostroi,whatMarshall describes as the‘all-singing, all-talking […] giantoftheFiveYearPlan.’11Yettheworkbeingdonethereisnotonlytheconstructionofthesite,butalsothereconstructionoftheworker,inthiscaseAfanasev,therebyillustratingthat‘in thus changing nature, man changes human nature.’12In the same vein, Ivens writes about the twofold process,‘thecreationofanewindustrialbasisandthecreationofanewkindofman’,hopingtohavemanagedtoshowhowthemassesofyoungpeople(11,000ofwhomareKomsomolmembers)arebeingeducatedandinvolvedinthesocialistconstruction.13These statements echo Al’pert’s words andideacompletely.

Komsomol begins with Hanns Eisler’s rousing music overthe credits, and then a kind of introduction to the film,establishing it as a contrast between the capitalist westand the socialist USSR, a classic‘them and us’ opposition,very common in Soviet art and journalism, fiction anddocumentary of the time.The first images are of Germanfactories with closed gates, and the caption that lifeis being extinguished there. Factories are followed bydemonstratingstrikerswithbannerssupportingtheUSSR.The marching crowds are filmed from an extreme heightto appear miniscule, as in Rodchenko’s work (particularly‘To the demonstration’, 1928-29), and there is even a shotof trumpetersfilmedfrombelow, identical inangle tohis‘Pioneer with Trumpet’ of 1930. The film is dedicated ‘Toyou,Komsomolof theWest,onthefront linesof theclassstruggle...’Thefilmproperbeginsafterablackscreen.

AmapappearswithvariousplacenamesrelatingtoSovietindustry, then the focus narrows to ‘Moskva’ (Moscow),radiating concentric circles symbolizing sound waves:‘Attention, this is Moscow speaking. We start with aKomsomol radio-appeal to the entire Soviet Union.’ Thehyphen between ‘radio’ and ‘appeal’ is a stylized zig-zag,

rather like a flash of electricity. ‘The workers of Moscownotify the party and government. Huge industrial plantshave been put into operation. A ball-bearing factory, theStalin Automotive Plant and others.These are all in needofmetal.’Otherfactoriesinneedofsteelareshownonthemap,andappealtoMagnitogorskandKuzbass,thencomesthe text ‘Respond, Magnitogorsk. Magnitogorsk’ as thelettersofMagnitogorskincreaseincrementallyinsizeuntiltheyfillthebreadthofscreen.

Thefilmthenpresentsthefirstofseveralstatisticsdesignedto impress: ‘300 million tons of high-grade ore will becontributed to the socialist construction by MagneticMountain.’Theconstructionsiteisthenshown,withdrillingbrigades, horses and carts, Bucyrus excavators, and theproductionprocessesinaction.Withnowarningananimatedfantasysequenceshowshowproductioncouldonedaybe,withlittletractorsbeingrhythmicallyandrapidlychurnedoutincriss-crossinglinesofmotion.Again,thisisastylizedscene,usingadevicewhichreflectsacommonpractice inthe Soviet Union of the 1930s, that of showing the futurein the present. In one of the most famous constructionnovels, Valentin Kataev’s ‘Time, Forward!’ (1932), alsocenteredaroundadayinthelifeofashockworkerbrigadeinMagnitogorskasthemencompetetobreakarecord,onecharacterlooksdownatthesitefromanairplaneandseesitasablueprint,unfinished:‘Hesawitasitwouldlookayearhence.’14AStalinquotationfrequentlyreferredtoin‘Time,Forward!’appearstoexplainthisscene:‘Wewillfollowtheroadtosocialismthroughindustrializationatfull throttleand leave the perennial“Russian deprivation” behind us.Wewillbecomeanationofautomobilesandtractors.’Thenext title links the film directly to Al’pert’s photo series,and countless other works, as it refers to Magnitostroi asa ‘giant’. Finally, Afanasev, a 19 year old former shepherdfrom a Kolkhoz farm in Samara, Kyrgyzstan, applies towork there. He is illiterate and not a Party member, and— amazed at the enormity and noise of the constructionsite—hesetstoworkwithenthusiasm.EislerexplainshowhecreatedagrandorchestralpieceforthescenesinwhichAfanasev first walks through Magnitostroi in wonder, ‘toconveytotheaudiencethefundamentalimportanceofthisincident’,addingthatpeoplearetransformingthesteppe,andMagnitostroi is transformingitsbuilders,‘anew typeof man is emerging in the process.’15 The rest of the filmfollows Afanasev through his transformation, as he firsthelpstodigandcreatethefoundation,thenworksonthemasonry and then the riveting of the metal casing of theblast furnace. He also learns to read and write, improveshisworkingskillsandbecomesaKomsomolmember,andengineer. His brigade competes with another to completethesecondblast furnace in theallocated time. Inkeepingwith the style of ‘Time, Forward!’ and‘The Giant and the

Maks Al´pert, photos with

Kalmykov, from the series The

Giant and the Builder, 1932.

Russia in construction 1932.

Builder’ Ivens inserts the title: ‘Ishmakov’s brigade brokethe American record with 540 rivets in one day.’ Later inthe film there are similarly conventional propagandistictitles:‘AttheUralrivertheenthusiasticandheroicworkersof Magnitostroy built a one-kilometre-long dike in only150days’,and‘Twosocialistgiantsareatworkhereinoneand the same breath: Kuzbass for coal and Magnitogorskfor ore.’There are blackboards with shock worker brigadeprodcutionfigures,asin‘TheGiantandtheBuilder’.Despitetheenormousefforts,thetwoblastfurnacesarenotreadywhen intended, so in order to keep to the schedule theKomsomoldecidesona‘nocturnalassault.’Shockbrigadescompete;theworkerssingpassionately‘ThePartysaysGiveus Steel!The Komsomols answer: In the time plannedWewillgiveyousteel!’and:‘Ural,Ural,we’vemadeyousubmit.’This is‘The Ballad of Magnitogorsk’ with music by HannsEislerandlyricsbySergeiTret’iakov.16Eventuallysuccessisachieved,andthefilmcloseswithaview,thenextday,oftheblastfurnaceoperatingwithfullforce.

Ivens’ shots of the blast furnace, of smoke stacks and ofworkers, are similar not only to the still photographs of‘The Giant and the Builder’, but also to frames in otherdocumentary and fiction films. Aleksander Macheret,director of Men and Jobs, another 1932 film on the themeofconstruction,describeshisresearchvisittoSvirstroi,thesiteofahydroelectricdamstation,notingthatinadditionto building work there was a great deal of filming takingplace,includingofShub’sK.Sh. E.andDovzhenko’sIvan.Hewrites that the workers knew that the filmmakers lovedfilmingmachineryinsmokeandsteam,sotheywouldsetup these scenes, noting wryly that ‘the machine workersat Dneprostroi know more about cinema workers thanthe latter do about them.’17 Clearly various directors werefilming the same material at the same time. Indicatively,thejournal‘FilmArt’(no.3,Spring1934)hasanimageonthecoverandinsideofJorisIvensandHerbertMarshallfilmingKomsomol from the top of a construction tower, and onotherpagesthereareimagesfromDovzhenko’sIvan,oneofIvanhimself,theotherofcranes,whichwouldnotbeoutofplaceinKomsomolorotherfilmsof1932.Theubiquityandimportance of the construction theme in the arts is alsoapparentinthe1932issuesoftheSovietjournal‘MoskauerRundschau’,publishedinMoscowinGermanforforeigners.These feature articles on the films Komsomol, Ivan, Counterplan (directed by Iutkevich and Ermler), and Men and Jobs,andextractsfromKataev’snovel‘Time,Forward!’Thenewspaperalsocontainsmanyreportsfromindustrialsites themselves, including Dneprostroi, Magnitostroi andSvirstroi.

In September 1932, in Moscow, Ivens edited his film, nowrenamed Song of Heroes in Russian. Unfortunately quite

a few scenes had to be cut against the director’s wishes,particularlyofAfanasev,whichmakesthefilmmoreabstractthanIvensintended.Thefilmwasreadyon1October1932,intimeforthe15thanniversaryoftheRevolution,asplanned,but was not allowed to be screened due to criticism. Itwas first shown in Magnitogorsk on 2 November, but theMoscowpremierewasnotuntil2January1933,ayearafterthepublicationof‘TheGiantandtheBuilder’.18

CONTEXT OF RESEARCHThis material is part of an interpretive and empirical study of various camera media I am working on, which examines Soviet fiction and documentary films, still photographs, photomontage and posters on the theme of construction during the First

Five Year Plan.

1 See Margarita Tupitsyn, Gustav Klutsis and Valentina Kulagina. Photography and Montage After Constructivism, International Center of Photography, New York and Steidl, Göttingen, 2004, p.115 and 195. Tupitsyn is unaware of Pile Driving (Russian: Svai), suggesting erroneously that it might be part of Komsomol.

2 Esfir’ Shub, ‘Zhizn’ moia – kinematograf’, Iskusstvo, Moscow, 1972, p. 273.

3 ‘USSR in Construction’ (English edition), 1930, no. 1, introduction, no page number. I use the standard tranlisteration of the original Russian (‘Kalmykov’, ‘Magnitostroi’), rather than the sometimes strange spellings in the English version of the journal.

4 Victor Margolin, The Struggle for Utopia. Rodchenko, Lissitsky, Moholy-Nagy 1917-1946, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 1997, p. 171.

5 An exception is Erika Wolf, ‘SSSR na stroike. From constructivist visions to construction sites’ in the exhibition catalogue USSR in Construction, Foto Museet, Sundsvall, 2006.

6 In reality Kalmykov married a German, and in 1938 he was arrested and shot as a German spy (see Stephen Kotkin, Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism as a civilization, University of California Press, Berkeley, London, 1997, p. 433). His widow is interviewed in Pieter Jan Smit’s 1997 documentary Magnitogorsk: Forging the New Man.

7 See the report on the plenum held to debate ‘The Giant and the Builder’ in ‘Proletarskoe foto’, 7-8 (July-August), 1932, pp, 5-16, p. 9 and p. 11.

8 Ibid., p. 8.9 Revealingly, the writer and photographer Sergei Tret’iakov, who wrote

the lyrics for the ‘Magnitogorsk Ballad’ in Komsomol, wrote in 1931: ‘I used to take only documentary snapshots, that is, I caught moments of reality as it is. Now […] I also do photographs that have been organized in advance. These are photographs that are supposed to show not how work is actually done, but rather how it should be done…’. Elizabeth Astrid Papazian, Manufacturing Truth. The documentary moment in early Soviet culture, Northern Illinois University Press, 2009, p. 61.

10 H. P. J. Marshall, ‘Moscow overtakes and surpasses’, Experimental Cinema, no.5, 1934, pp. 41-42, p. 41.

11 Ibid., p. 42.12 Ibid., p. 42.13 F. C. W., ‘Bei Joris Ivens in Magnitogorsk. “Komsomol” Ein Film von der

“Eisen- und Kohlefront”’, Moskauer Rundschau, 19 June 1932, no.25 (178), p. 4.

14 Valentine Kataev, Time, forward!, transl. Charles Malamuth, Northwestern University Press, Evanston, Illinois, 1995, p. 312.

15 http://www.clevelandorch.com/images/FTPImages/Performance/program_notes Accessed 4 March 2009.

16 Around this time Eisler and Tret’iakov were also working on an opera about Magnitogorsk, which seems to have been banned. See Hans Schoots, Living Dangerously. A Biography of Joris Ivens, Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam, 2000, p. 80.

17 A. Macheret, ‘Khudozhestvennye techeniia v sovetskom kino’, Iskusstvo, Moscow, 1963, p.157-58.

18 Several years later USSR censors shelved the film when Tretiakov fell out of favour (arrested 1937, executed 1939), and it was not shown there again until 1961. Op. Cit., Schoots, Living Dangerously, p. 81.

Dr Milena Michalski is Research Associate at King’s College London.

She is author (with James Gow) of War, Image and Legitimacy: Viewing

Contemporary Conflict (Routledge, London and New York, 2007), and of

various journal articles on film. Forthcoming publications include

entries on Abram Room and his Bed and Sofa in the World Cinema

Directory of Russian Film (Intellect Books, 2010 and online: http://

www.worldcinemadirectory.org/). Michalski is currently undertaking

an interpretive and empirical study of various camera media, in which

she examines Soviet fiction and documentary films, still photographs,

photomontage and posters on the theme of construction during the

First Five Year Plan.

• Maks Al’pert, Coke chemical

plant. A sloping shaft for

coal feeding. Photo © Maks

Al’pert

50 51October 2010 | 16October 2010 | 16

Joris Ivens special issue, Studies in Documentary Film, 3.1By: Sun Hongyun (guest ed.)Magazine: Intellect Journals/Film Studies, Bristol (2009, English), 72 pages.

Since 2007 Studies in Documentary Film is ascholarlyjournaldevotedtothehistory,theory,criticismandpracticeofdocumentaryfilm.AttheoccassionofIvens’110thanniversaryaspe-cial issue about Ivens was published in 2009.The articles derived from the lectures held atthe‘50yearsofJorisIvensandChina’Interna-tionalAcademicConferenceinBeijingon18-20November 2008. Guest editor Sun Hongyun(senior lecturerat thecollegeofArtsandSci-enceofBeijingUnionUniversity)selectedfivelecturesallrelatedtotherelationshipbetweenIvensandChina.ThomasWaughispreparingabookonIvens’oeuvreandisfocussinginhisarticle on The 400 Million (19380). There is aconsenus in film studies about the pitfalls ofEuro-American cinematic depictions of thepostcolonial ‘other’, the liabilities of the for-eign film-makers’ gaze, even paradodoxicallythose most well-intentioned films produced‘insolidarity’.CanthesebetracedinIvens’firstChinese film too? Waugh calls for a nuancedreflection on this potential paradox and bal-ance. Ivens intended to avoid Eurocentrismwithitspaternalism,exoticviewandperspec-tiveofexploitation,butwasconfrontedwithacomplexpoliticalandculturalsituation,whichforced him to adapt to unforseen circum-stances with censorship, blockades resultinginacrobaticvacillationsbetweenspontaneouscinematographyandthemuchmoreprevalentmise-en-scene. InthesecondarticleKeesBak-kerisconfrontingtwooppositefilmswitheachother:The 400 MillionwithitsDutch-Americanview,supportingtheChineseagainsttheJapa-neseoppressorandFumioKamei’sfilmFight-ing Soldies,shotinthesameyear,butsupport-ingtheJapaneseinvadingarmy.Inthethirdar-ticlealsoSunHungyoniscomparingtwofilms,bothstartedin1972,withtheaimtovisualizean isolated China for a Western public. BothMichelangeo Antonioni and Ivens/Loridan-Ivenscaptureddailylifeinthesameyear,butwithadistinctindividualstyleandconception.According to Sun Hungyon Antonioni createda relationship between the director and thepeopleofgazingandbeinggazedat.While,onthe contrary Ivens/Loridan-Ivens revealed thelanguages,taste,gestures,ideasandinherent

valueofthecommonChinesepeople.‘Thefirstthinginfilmmakingistoholdadialogue.Thatiswhatwetriedtodo’, Ivenssaid, inaquote.The fourth and fifth article written by ZhangTongdao and Jean-Pierre Sergent are describ-inganoverviewofthehalfacenturyrelation-shipbetweenIvensandChina.ZhangTongdaoconcludeshisarticlewiththisstatement: ’thelegendofIvensandChinaisnotsimplyastoryinfilmhistoryorapoliticalmyth.Itismoreapropositionofeasternandwesterncultureonwhichresearchjusthasstarted.’

Joris Ivens 1898-1989. Das Unmögliche zu filmenBy: Barbara Heinrich-Polte (ed.)Book: Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv, Ber-lin (2009, German), 56 pages.

To celebrate its 50th jubilee retrospectiveprogramme at the DOK Leipzig festival theBundesarchiv-Filmarchiv decided to show 20Ivens films and publish a German catalogue.Filmscholars likeGünterAgde, JeanpaulGoer-gen, Judith Kretschmar and Philipp DominikKeidlwrotearticlescoveringuptodateresearchconcerningIvensandGermany.AgdegivesanintroductiononIvensfilmoeuvrein‘Intherap-idsofworldhistory’.Thefascinationofhisfilmsand personality attracted contemporaries,butstillcontinues,eventwentyyearsafterhisdeath.‘Whatpersists?’isAgdeasking.Hisfilmspresenthistoriesfromapreviouseraforaworldwith new and other social conflicts. Certainly,Filmsalter,becausetheaestheticsofrepresen-tationchangeaswellasourperception.Ivens’cinematographical Social-Psychoprogrammehoweverisgainingmoreandmorethecharac-terofpreciousandvaluabledocumentsfromadistantperiod.TheybelongtoourMemorycul-tureofNowadays.Theinterestofstudentsforhisfilmsiscontinuing,theywanttolearnfromhisfilms.Althoughnoexplicit‘Ivens-School’ofadherents exists one can trace lasting influ-ence in every important Documentary film ofrecentyears,statesAgde.JeanpaulGoergendescribes Ivens’filmsmadeduring the Weimar Republic, based on clip-pings and film programmes at the time. In athird article Kretzschmar explores the contri-bution of Ivens to GDR-filmart when he wasemployed at the DEFA filmstudios from 1951until1956.Hewasresponsableforthecreationofsixfilms,invariousroles,asdirector,artisticadvisor or assistant. Kretzschmar proofs thatthisperiodwasdifficultforIvens,andprovided

bothsuccessesaswellasfailures,likethefea-ture film Till Eulenspiegel. This co-productionwithFrancegavehimtheopportunitytotravelandstayinParis.Keidl gives his view through the eyes of ayoungergenerationandanswersthequestionwhyitissodifficulttodiscoverIvens. Joris IvensBy: Dimitris Kerkinos (ed.) Book: Thessaloniki Filmfestival, (2010, Greek/English), 58 pages.

InaspecialTributeprogrammethe12thThes-saloniki International Film Festival (Images ofthe21stCentury)showedtwentyIvensfilmsandpublishedacataloguewitharticleswrittenbyMarceline Loridan-Ivens, André Stufkens, TomGunningandGreekfilmcriticAndreasPagou-latos.InhisintroductionwordfestivaldirectorDimitriEipideswrites:‘ForIvens,thedocumen-tarywasaplatformforunlimitedfreeexpres-sion,afieldinwhichnocompromisewastoler-ated,acreative‘land’inwhichhecouldcreatemasterpieces.The multifaceted personality ofthe globetrotting, restless, uncompromisingdocumentarist is reflected in his films which,in turn, become the remarkable setting for ameetingbetweentheobserverandthepersonparticipatingintheevents.EipidesstatesthatIvens’cinemaspringsfromhisinnateobsessionwithcapturingthetruthoflifeandconstitutesa kind of awakening of the audiences activerelationshipwiththefilm.AsakindofanswerIvens admits in his dialogue with Pagoulatos‘the cinematographer, in my opinion shouldbe more open to the contradictory wealth ofhuman relations and attitudes.’ Ivens revealsinthisdialogueanunknownfactthathesup-portedGreekfighterswhenafterthewartheyaskedhimtohelpthemwithafilm.

Joris Ivens, By: Jean Commoli (ed.)Book: catalogue Ânûû-rû âboro Film festival (2009, French), 56 pages

JeanCommoli,directorofthepeoplesÂnûû-rûâboroFilmfestival(‘TheMan’sShadow’)inNewCaledonia,statesaboutthemissionofhisfestival:‘Forthepeopleswhoareraisingtheirvoicesintheworldtodaytoasserttheirdignity,theirhistory,theirvalues,itisvitaltomakedocumentaryfilmsthatareoutside

thedominantmodels,tomakethemcircu-late,toexchangethemwithothers.Oureraisthatofthemassmedia,dominatedbybigmediagroups,servingmarketlogiconly.Itisappropriateanddesirabletoshowotherwaysofdoingthings,filming,lookingandlistening.’AccompanyingtheretrospectiveofIvensandMarcelineLoridan-Ivens’filmsanicebookletwaspublishedwitha.o.aninterestingper-sonalviewontheimportanceofdocumentarybytheauthorJean-FrancoisCorrat.

Joris Ivens WeltenfilmerBy: Joris Ivens, Marceline Lori-dan-Ivens, a.o.DVD/Book: Eur. Stiftung Joris Ivens Absolut MEDIEN (2009, German), 14.56’ / 304 pages.

TheGermanversionoftheDVDboxsetinclud-ingStufkens’accompanyingbook,launchedatDOK Leipzig on 20 October, received good re-views.Germanreviews:SWR (SüdwestRundfunk)/FilmSPAICHer: ‘Eine exemplarische Edition…eine technisch makel-lose DVD. Etwas für die ganz besonderen Mo-mente im Leben‘ DerStandard(DominikKamalzadeh): ‘Die mit großer editorischer Sorgfalt erstellte DVD-Box Joris Ivens: Weltenfilmer ermöglicht nun erst-mals einen faszinierenden Überblick über die Arbeiten dieses zentralen Dokumentaristen des 20.Jahrhunderts.’DerFreitag(MatthiasDell):‘Wenn man beden-kt, dass es bis vor Kurzem von disparaten VHS-Veröffent-lichungen abgesehen, nahezu un-möglich war, Spuren von Ivens‘ Werk zu finden, ist die Kollektion nicht hoch genug zu würdigen. Die Box umfasst beileibe nicht alle Filme, die der Regisseur in über 60 Jahren gedreht hat. Aber die Auswahl extrahiert das Wesentliche von Ivens‘ Werk, und es empfiehlt sich gerade, die nach Jahren geordneten Filme chronologisch zu schauen, weil sich dadurch die Bewegung eines Künstlers erschließt, für den Bewegung maßge-bliches Kriterium war.‘RAYKinomagazin(MichaelPekler):‘... das Mus-terbeispiel einer sorgsamen, jahrelang vorbere-iteten Edition. ... eine der wichtigsten DVD-Edi-tionen dieses Jahres.’BerlinerZeitung(RalfSchenk): ’…zwanzig Arbe-iten, die in der längst überfälligen, grandiosen DVD-Edition ‘Joris Ivens Weltenfilmer’ versam-melt sind. Mit ihr folgen wir noch einmal den Stationen jenes ‘fliegenden Holländers’, wie er von seinen Freunden genannt wurde, tauchen

in seinen Zorn, seine Ideale und Illusionen ein, die denen des 20. Jahrhunderts entsprachen.’

Les Aventures de Till l’Espiègle (1956, Paris/East-Berlin)By: Gérard Philipe, Joris IvensDVD: TF 1, Paris (2009, French), 85’.

TillEulenspiegelwasapeasanttricksterwhosejokes and pranks became the source of manyfolk tales, originating in Germany between1300and1350.InthefigureofTilltheindividu-algetsbackatsociety;thestupidyetcunningpeasant demonstrates his superiority to thenarrow,dishonest, condescendingtownsman,as well as to the clergy and nobility. Throughthe centuries his character was featured inmany literary and musical works, includinga well-known 19th Century novel by the Bel-gian writer Charles De Coster, who situatedthischaracterinthecontextoftheDutchandFlemish Revolt against the Spanish Empire inthe16thcentury.Ivens, in 1955 adviser of the DEFA, the stateowned film production company in the GDR,andlivinginEast-Berlin,wassupposedtobe-come the director, but during the shootingFrench leading film star Gérard Philipe, whoacted the lead role of Till, became more andmore dominant and took over direction. Hedirectedhimself,whichdidn’timprovethebal-anceandsubtleness.Shootingtookplaceonlo-cationandinstudiosinGermany,Sweden,Bel-giumandFrance.Atthetimethefilmenjoyedgood runs both in Italy, France and Germany,although it was not considered critical a suc-cess.InhisfilmoeuvreIvens’feauturefilmLes Aven-tures de Till l’Espiègleseemstobeararity.Butwhen watching the opening sequence on thedunes near the Northsea, with the two lov-ers,TillandNell,lookingandlongingforeachother,it’sstrikingtonoticesimilaritywiththeloverssequenceinBreakers,Ivens’firstfeaturefilmin1929.InBreakersalsotwoloversarerun-ningtowardseachotheronthedunes,withthebreakers of the Northsea at the background.Thisisjustoneofthemanyfascinatingaspectsofthisfilm,nowreleasedonDVDbyTF1.ThisalmostcompletelyneglectedmovieaboutthemerrypranksterTillseesarevival:duringsev-eral Ivens retrospectives it was programmedintheChildrensection,andalsoaFamilyPayChannel in France broadcasts this lively Fran-co-German production as a children film. Al-ready in 1956, when the film was premiered,

criticsnoticedthatthankstotheunsubtleste-reotypingoftheSpanishoppressoragainsttheFlamishfreedomfightersandtheover-the-topdrolleryofTill,thisfilmshouldnotbetakentooseriously.Spanishsoldiersareroutedbyagangofice-skatingrebels,thegeneraloftheleaderoftheRevolt,WilliamofOrange,isadrunkencowardandfatcatholicpriestsaresellingtheirsouls. This fact urged Dutch censors to pro-hibitreleaseinTheNetherlands!Asachildrenfilm it is still enjoyable and one can appreci-ate the attempts to reconstruct paintings ofPieterBreughel inthescenery.AtthetimeIv-ensalreadyhadmanydoubtsabouttheresult,buttheprimalintentionsofIvensandGérardPhilipewerecompletelyserious.Itwasthefirstoffourmajorfeaturefilmsbetween1956and1960co-producedwiththestate-ownedDEFAintheGDRandFrenchcompanies. Ivenstriedto create a popular film with social critique,butonthenightthemoviewaspremiered inNovember 1956, Soviet tanks invaded Buda-pest to crush the Hungarian Revolution. Theintendedsymbolismofthestorysuddenlygotanoppositeeffect.In our next Ivens Magazine #17 more aboutTheAdventuresofTill,IvensandPhilipe

501 Directors / 501 réalisateursBy Steven Jay Schneider (ed.) Book: Barron’s Educational Series, Incorporated, New York (2008, En-glish, French), 640 pages.

After he finished the best selling book ‘1001FilmsYouMustSeeBeforeYouDie’Schneidermadeasimilarcomprehensiveguideto501ofthegreatestfilmmakersofalltime.Inchrono-logicalorder (dateofbirth)allfilmmakersre-ceiveatleastaone-pageentrywhichincludesdiscussion of their work and influences, theirfilmography, and listing of awards they havereceived. Every entry is augmented with aphoto of each director plus movie stills fromhisorherfilmsandaquoteofacritic. It’sanA-to-Zcompendiumthatprofilesmajorfiguresas Sergei Eisenstein, Martin Scorsese, AlfredHitchcock, Orson Welles, Federico Fellini, Ste-venSpielberg,RobertAltman,andJoris Ivens.In between René Clair and Lev Kouleshov thecontributionof Ivenstofilmarthasbeende-scribed.

New books and DVD’s

52 53October 2010 | 16October 2010 | 16

Kees Ivens and the Waalbridge Joris Ivens shot many film sequences withbridges.Thisprobablyhadtodowithhisyouth,when as a kid and youngster he almost on adaily basis was confronted with his fathers’plans to build a large traffic bridge crossingtheriverWaalinhisbirthplaceNijmegen,themainriverbetweenRotterdamandtheindus-trialRurharea.KeesIvensinitiatedin1905hisvisionary ideas about transportation and theconstruction of a bridge replacing the centu-riesoldferry.Ittookhim31yearsofahardfightbefore the queen could open the Waalbridgeon16June1936.In2011the75thanniversaryofthisbridge,at that timethe largest ironspanbridgeinEurope,willbecelebratedwithanex-hibition,abook,afilmprogrammeandseveralpublic events. The personality of Kees Ivenswillbecommemorated.TheIvensFoundation,MuseumHetValkhof,theRegionalArchivesNi-jmegenandthelocalhistoricalfilmsocietycol-laboratetoorganizethislocalevent.

Book Robert Capa in China with Joris Ivens and FernoRixtBoomsmawroteanarticleinthepreviousIvens Magazine about Robert Capa’s photosmade in China, when he accompanied JorisIvens and John Ferno during the shooting ofThe 400 Million. She found unknown photosandprintsinUSandDutchphotoarchives.ThemostextensivecollectionofworkphotosmadebyCapaduringhisworkinChinacanbefoundat the Ivens Archives (over 80 prints). Her re-search sponsored by the Manfred and HannaHeitingFundresultsinabookpublishedbytheRijksmuseum.Sheisalsopreparinganexhibi-tionwithCapa’sphotos.ExpectedinDecember2010:Photography meets Film: Capa, Ivens and

Fernhout in China, 1938byRixtA.Bosma.Intheseries Rijksmuseum Studies in Photography,publishedwiththesupportoftheManfred&HannaHeitingFund.€22.95,ISBN9789071450310.info:www.rijksmuseum.nl

Two avant-garde theatre plays with Ivens’filmsAttheendofthe1920’sJorisIvenscollaboratedin two avant-garde artworks, performed bystudentsformtheTechnicalUniversityofDelft:the open air performance ‘D.16.M.M.’ (1928)and the theater play ‘Donogoo Tonka’ (1931).FilmimagesfromIvenswereintegratedinthedécor.Boththeatreplayswereperformeddur-ingthemanifestation‘TheGroupofDelft’thatstartedon15thofFebruaryandlastedtillNo-vember2010.’D.16.M.M’.(‘D16MenschenMachine’)wasasatheatreplaycreatedin1928byMannusFran-ken.Ithadaremarkablesizeofdécorwithabigmachinery crushing people. In this machineMannus Franken tried to visualise the battlebetweenspiritandmatter,menandmachine,power and intellect. Franken wrote: ‘A catas-trophe was in the air, a fear that this RobotwouldbecomeaGolem’.Ivenstookcareoftheabstract film images and designed a equallyremarkable modern décor of white cones. On

the5thand6thofJune2010areinterpretationof‘D.16.M.M.’wasperformedinDelft.‘DonogooTonka’istheoriginalfilmscriptfrom1919writtenbytheFrenchpoetandwriterJulesRomains. A year later he published this storyaboutamanwithsuicidaltendencieswhowasgiven the advise by a biometric psychothera-pistandageographertogotoanonexistingcountry in South-America, to proof his luck,

togetherwithothertreasurydiggers.Becausethefilmwasnotrealised,Romainschangedthetext into a theatre play. On February the 7th1931 the Delft Student Theater group (DSTG)performed ‘Donogoo Tonka’ in the Stadsdoel-en.JorisIvensshotimagesoffortuneseekers,industriouslookingfortreasuresinthedunesoftheNorthseaatWassenaar.BothexperimentalfilmsofIvens–theonesur-realistic, the other abstract- got lost. We onlyfind proof of the fact that Ivens made thesefilms because the newspapers mentioned itandtheIvensArchivesiskeepingsomestills.

Fake or fact?In1929JorisIvensfellinlovewithAnnekevanderFeer,ayoungblondeFrisianwithastrongpersonality. As an artist she was involved inseveral Communist groups, for which shemade illustrations, drawings, posters andpaintings.ShealsodesignedthefilmposterforPhilips Radio,onceawardedbestfilmposteroftheNetherlandsever.In1931sheaccompaniedIvenstoRussiawhereshestaidforacoupleofyears. Her artistic work is hard to trace, butsuddenly in 2009 during an exhibition in theDutchcityofVeereseveralpaintingsappeared.Morestriking:theseriesofpaintingsinvolvedsome of the protagonists of Ivens’ circle offriendsinAmsterdam:EvaBesnyö,JohnFern-hout, his sister Annetje Fernhout, Joris IvensandAnnekevanderFeerherself.Wasdroppingthesewellknownnamesmerelyatricktoraisemoremoneyforsale?OrwasthequalityofVanderFeerspaintingsthatworsethatonecannotrecognizeanyofthepersonsmentionedinthetitles?Watchthepaintingsandmakeyourownjudgement…

short cuts

Anneke van der Feer,

Annetje Fernhout, Joris Ivens, John

Fernhout, and Eva Besnyö, Oil

on Canvas, the 1930’s, Private

collection.

Nr 16 | October 2010 European Foundation Joris Ivens

THE

MAGAZINE

3 JorisIvensAward Cinémaduréel

5 FromShanghaiwithLoveWorldExpoShanghai

14 JorisIvensasIknowhim

FuHongxing

25 IvenssculptureinParis BryanMcCormack

42 IvensandChile TizianaPanizza

43 IvensandAustralia RobertHamilton

42 New:CinepoemCompetition

RensvanMeegen

46 KomsomolandTheGiantandtheBuilderMilenaMichalski

inthisedition:

IvensandHemingwayAlexVernon,StaceyGuill,DanMillerandSuzanneClark,NicolasBlayo

Internationalavant-gardeandtheChineseNationalAnthemLiangLuo

JoopHuiskenGünterJordan

© DSTG