This offer is for a very rare Dutch released collection. For the first time twenty films from Ivens' oeuvre are available for the public, from classics such as The Spanish Earth (1937; the box features two versions: one with the commentary tracks spoken by Ernest Hemingway and one by Orson Welles) and his cinematic testament A Tale of the Wind (1988), to The Tipi (Wigwam, 1912), a school-boy Western made with family and friends. All films have been extensively researched by the Ivens Foundation in numerous collections all over the world, and great care has been taken to digitally restore every film to its (most) authentic state. Apart from the films, a lot of unique bonus material has been included in the box-set, among them a previously unreleased film interview with Joris Ivens from 1983.

Joris Ivens (Nijmegen 1898 - Paris 1989) was a prolific documentary filmmaker who worked on every continent over the course of seven decades. Some called him a leftist committed to changing the world through film. Ivens worked in almost every genre, including the essay, compilation, hybrid dramatization, socialist realism, and more. Whether in his native the Netherlands, the Soviet Union, the United States, Vietnam, Indonesia or beyond, he left an indelible artistic and political mark that continues to resonate in the twenty-first century.

Ivens’ documentaries are not just the work of an inspired film maker who in the course of his career was awarded with both the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival and the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, but they also have a huge historical relevance, both in a political and in a technical sense. Technically, because as much as Ivens was aiming for the same result as today's observational documentarist, due to economic and technical restraints his films were often scripted, with events reconstructed or acted out, in order to tell a story or to deliver a political message in a better way. Politically Ivens was born in the same year as Bertolt Brecht and Hans Eisler. These three men display a number of striking parallels in their development. All three began their careers in the front line of the avant-garde movement. Their concerns were initially formal-artistic. Not long after, they embraced the communist doctrine and with great conviction produced work in accordance with the party ideology.

Subtitles are available in English and Dutch. Menu options are available in English and Dutch. Total playtime: 890 minutes.

Contents:

DVD-1        1912-1933

De Wigwam /The Tipi, 1912
Bonus

De Wigwam / The Tipi, 1912 (version 1931)

Etudes des mouvements a Paris, 1927

De Brug / The Bridge, 1928

Regen / Rain (silent), 1929 (with Mannus Franken)

Regen / Rain (sound, Lichtveld), 1929/1932 (with Mannus Franken)
Bonus

Regen / Rain (sound, Eisler), 1929/1941 (with Mannus Franken)
Bonus

Regen / Rain (sound, Lichtveld, version Micha Hamel), 2002 (with M. Franken)

Philips Radio, 1931

Komsomol, 1933

Nieuwe Gronden / New Earth, 1933
Bonus

Nieuwe Gronden / New Earth, 1933 (live-version ASKO Ensemble HK Grüber)

DVD-2        1934-1940

Borinage, 1934 (with Henri Storck)

The Spanish Earth (version Ernest Hemingway), 1937
Bonus

The Spanish Earth (version Orson Welles), 1937

The 400 Million, 1939

Power And The Land, 1940
    
DVD-3        1946-1966

Indonesia Calling, 1946

La Seine a rencontré Paris, 1957

…à Valparaiso, 1963

Pour Le Mistral, 1965

Rotterdam Europoort, 1966

Rotterdam Europoort, 1966 (French version Chris Marker, Yves Montand)
 
DVD-4        1968-1976

Le 17ieme Parallèle, 1969

Histoire d’un Ballon:Le Lycée nr. 31 à Pékin (de Yukong deplaça les montagnes), 1976 (with Marceline Loridan-Ivens)

La Pharmacie nr. 3: Shanghai (de Yukong deplaça les montagnes), 1976
 
DVD-5        1980-1988

Une Histoire de Vent, 1988 (with Marceline Loridan-Ivens)
Bonus

Ciné-Mafia (rencontre 1) – Jean Rouch, 1980
Bonus

Témoins, interview Joris Ivens, 1983 (with Robert Destanques)
Bonus

Restauration Joris Ivens digital, 2008

This is a region 0 release that will play on all DVD-players worldwide.