Ivens, Joris |
| FILM MAKER (THE NETHERLANDS) |
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BORN 18 Nov 1898, Nijmegen, Gelderland: Van Berchenstraat - DIED 28 Jun 1989, Paris BIRTH NAME Ivens, George Henry Anton GRAVE LOCATION Paris: Cimetière du Montparnasse, 3 Boulevard Edgar Quinet (division 12) |
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Joris Ivens came from a wealthy family. His father had a photo supply shop and he made his first film when he was 13. He studied photo technology in Berlin and befriended the poet Hendrik Marsman during the 1920s. In 1928 he made "De Brug" ("The Bridge"). In 1931 he went to the USSR to make "Song of Heroes", a documentary about the new city of Magnitogorsk that was mainly built by forced labourers, turned into volunteers by Ivens. He lived in the USA from 1936 to 1945 and in 1943 he made two propaganda movies for the allies, including "The Spanish Earth", with Ernest Hemingway as narrator. After he left the USA he lived in Eastern Europe and from 1965 to 1970 he worked in North Vietnam. In 1967 he received the Lenin Peace Prize. Between 1971 and 1977 he created a very long documentary about the cultural revolution in China. He was knighted shortly before his death in 1989. He was married to Marceline Loridan (b.1928), a survivor of the concentration camp Theresienstadt. |
| Images |
 The grave of Joris Ivens at the Montparnasse cemetery, Paris. Picture by Androom (27 Aug 2001) |
