The retrospective for one of the greatest directors in the history of film and founding fathers of the Leipzig Festival shows how political contents can be combined with poetic form. Apart from cineastic classics and world-famous masterpieces, the programme also presents some works recently re-discovered in the Federal Archive; a result of the doc film giant’s cooperation with DEFA.

Major historic movements of the 20th century, philosophical reflections and always a firm stance – wrapped in pure poetry and beauty.

Don't miss:

DOK Podium "Memories – Marceline Loridan-Ivens in Conversation"

Programme 1:

Tuesday 27.10. | 2.30 pm | CineStar 6

• Borinage (Misère au Borinage) by Joris Ivens, Henri Storck | Belgium 1934 | 34:00 min.
  Ivens produced this documentary with Belgian director Henri Storck about the strike in the Borinage, an industrial area surrounding the city of Mons in the Belgian province of Hennegau. In sober images, Ivens shows the consequences of the strike: unemployment and poverty as well as growing solidarity among the workers.

• Komsomol / Song of Heroes (Pesn o gerojach) by Joris Ivens | Soviet Union 1932 | 55:00 min.
  In "Komsomol / Song of Heroes", Ivens sets his portrait of work in the industrial city of Magnitogorsk, which was built on either side of the Ural by more than 200,000 workers within a few years, to Hanns Eisler’s music.

• The Bridge (De brug) by Joris Ivens | The Netherlands 1927/1928 | 11:00 min.
  In "The Bridge", Ivens uses his camera to explore connections and contrasts between movement, colour, shape, and rhythm in an object that is actually static, a drawbridge in Rotterdam.

Programme 2:

Tuesday 27.10. | 8.15 pm | CineStar 6
Thursday 29.10 | 5.30 pm | Schaubühne Lindenfels

• Song of the Rivers (Das Lied der Ströme) by Joris Ivens | GDR 1953/1954 | 90:00 min.
  "Song of the Rivers", commissioned by the World Federation of Trade Unions, was one of the biggest documentary productions in the history of cinema. The film tells parable-like stories of the lives of working men in various parts of the world.

Programme 3:

Wednesday 28.10. | 5 pm | CineStar 6
Thursday 29.10. | 8.30 pm | Schaubühne Lindenfels

• Augenzeuge 48/63, Reportage lV. Int. Dokuwoche | GDR 1963

• Augenzeuge 50/68, Ivens‘ 70. Geburtstag | GDR 1968

• Breakers (Branding) by Joris Ivens and Mannus Franken | The Netherlands 1929 | 33:00 min.
  "Breakers" is a feature film with documentary settings in the tradition of social realism that tells the story of a young fisher in the small coastal town of Katwijk. Tied to dry land by his unemployed state his only comfort is his engagement to a young woman. She breaks it off, however, because of his lack of money and takes up with a well-to-do pawnbroker.

• Rain (Regen) by Joris Ivens and Mannus Franken | The Netherlands 1929 | 12:00 min.
  A rainy day in Amsterdam: Ivens’ filmic poem "Rain" made him one of the most renowned avant-garde filmmakers in Europe overnight. Even today, the film remains one of the classics of international cinema.

• The Seine Meets Paris (La Seine a rencontré Paris) by Joris Ivens | France 1957 | 32:00 min.
  Joris Ivens‘ declaration of love to Paris and the Seine. Along the banks of the Seine, Ivens shoots workers, children, lovers, students and tourists, mostly with a hidden camera, living, working and relaxing by the river.

Programme 4:

Wednesday 28.10. | 10 pm | CineStar 6
Friday 30.10. | 8.30 pm | Schaubühne Lindenfels

• The Four Hundred Million by Joris Ivens | USA 1939 | 53:00 min.
  Ivens' first film about China, "The Four Hundred Million", documents the Chinese-Japanese war from the point of view of the Chinese resistance.

• The Spanish Earth by Joris Ivens | USA 1937 | 52:00 min.
  Ivens shot "The Spanish Earth" together with Ernest Hemingway and John Ferno at the frontlines of the Spanish Civil War, documenting the Spanish citizens’ daily struggle for survival.

Programme 5:

Thursday 29.10. | 2.30 pm | CineStar 6
Sunday 01.11. | 11.00 pm | CineStar 6

• My Child (Mein Kind) by Vladimir Pozner and Alfons Machalz | GDR 1955 | 22:00 min.
  Joris Ivens served as artistic director on the production "My Child". This film about the tragedy of mothers all over the world, who raise their children with love only to lose them to war later, was considered too pacifist in the GDR.

• Peace Tour 1952 / Drive for Peace Warsaw–Berlin–Prague (Wyścig Pokoju Warszawa–Berlin–Praga) by Joris Ivens | Poland, GDR 1952 | 44:00 min.
  In "Peace Tour 1952 / Drive for Peace Warsaw–Berlin–Prague", Joris Ivens filmed the International Peace Race, a Central European cycle race which up to the political upheaval in the former member states of the Eastern Bloc in 1989 was the most important international race for amateurs and regarded as the 'Tour de France' of the East.

• Valparaiso (... À Valparaíso) by Joris Ivens | France, Chile 1963 | 27:00 min.
  In 1962, as part of an educational mission at the Instituto Cine Experimentál in Chile, Ivens produced "Valparaiso" with his students. The film draws an impressionist outline of the history, present day and future of the harbour city built on 42 hills and its inhabitants.

Programme 6:

Thursday 29.10. | 8.15 pm | CineStar 6
Sunday 01.11. | 5.30 pm | Schaubühne Lindenfels

• The 17th Parallel (Le dix-septième parallèle) by Joris Ivens and Marceline Loridan-Ivens | France 1968 | 113:00 min.
  A documentary about the work, the struggles and daily survival of the inhabitants of a small Vietnamese village south of the 17th parallel near the border between North and South Vietnam.

Programme 7:

Friday 30.10. | 2.30 pm | CineStar 6
Saturday 31.10. | 5.30 pm | Schaubühne Lindenfels

• Nanguila Tomorrow (Demain a Nanguila) by Joris Ivens | Mali 1960 | 50:00 min.
  In May 1960, Joris Ivens travels to Africa for the Société Franco-Africaine de Cinéma to produce a documentary about the young African state of Mali's independence from colonial rule. The result is a heavily stage-managed and very personal portrait of a boy and his village that exemplifies the whole country.

• Travel Notebook (Carnet de viaje) by Joris Ivens | Cuba 1961 | 34:00 min.
  In 1960, Joris Ivens took up an invitation from the Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos (ICAIC) to teach in Cuba and produce a film with the students. The result is "Travel Notebook", a letter on film that shows Cuba’s first steps and achievements after the revolution led by Fidel Castro.

Programme 8:

Friday 30.10. | 8.15 pm | CineStar 6
Saturday 31.10. | 8.30 pm | Schaubühne Lindenfels

• The First Years (Pierwsze Lata) by Joris Ivens | Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia , Poland 1949 | 99:00 min.
  Ivens uses the examples of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Poland to sketch three episodes showing the preparation for and transformations from capitalism to socialism, as well as the optimism that the socialist promises create in the population.

Programme 9:

Saturday 31.10. | 5.30 pm | CineStar 6
Sunday 01.11. | 8.30 pm | Schaubühne Lindenfels

• A Tale of the Wind (Une histoire du vent) by Joris Ivens and Marceline Loridan-Ivens | France 1988 | 78:00 min.
  Ivens turns to the wind again in his last film, which was shot in China. He uses the wind as a metaphor for the constant changes in culture and society and his own personal development.

• For the Mistral (Pour le mistral) by Joris Ivens | France 1965 | 30:00 min.
  In "For the Mistral", Ivens manages to make the wind on the screen visible and tangible to the audience by means of powerful images, a lively montage and a poetic voice-over.

Programme 10:

Saturday 31.10. | 2.30 pm | CineStar 6
Sunday 01.11. | 2.00 pm | Schaubühne Lindenfels

• The Adventures of Till Eulenspiegel (Les aventures de Till l'Espiègle) by Gérard Philipe | GDR, France 1956 | 90:00 min.
  In the 16th century, Spanish troops led by Philipp II occupy the Netherlands. When his father is burned at the stake for resisting the Spaniards, the trickster Till Ulenspiegel joins the resistance and becomes a brave and cunning fighter against the occupation forces.