Joris Ivens
When World War II began Joris Ivens, already one of the
important documentary filmmakers from the Netherlands, was in de
United States. In 1944 he was asked to become Film
Commissioner for the Netherlands East Indies by the government
of the Dutch East Indies. Ivens had to make a propaganda film for the
war against Japan and for a slow and controlled process of independence.
After Japan's surrender and Soekarno's declaration of the Indonesian
independence
on the 17th august 1945, things changed dramatically.
Ivens quitted his job and started, with Marion Michelle, on a
documentary film about the pro-Indonesian strikes in the port of
Sydney, Australia. The title of this film is Indonesia
Calling. Instead of making propaganda for the Dutch
government, he made propaganda in favour of the Indonesian
nationalists!
In 1950 Ivens' passport was taken in. He had to fly to Eastern Europe
where he stayed for about seven years.
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