Joris Ivens

Georg Henri Anton “Joris” Ivens (18 November 1898 – 28 June 1989) was a Dutch documentary filmmaker.

Originally his work was constructivist in character, especially his short city symphonies Rain (Regen, 1929), which he directed together with Mannus Franken, filmed over two years, and The Bridge (De Brug, 1928). The latter was about a newly built elevator railway bridge in Rotterdam, shot in 1927, and shown in 1928 by the Nederlandsche Filmliga (Netherlands Film League) (1927–1933), an avant-garde cineclub had just been established by Ivens, Menno ter Braak, and others. The Bridge was part of its first season of film screenings and received critical acclaim. The Filmliga drew various foreign filmmakers to the Netherlands, such as Alberto Cavalcanti, René Clair, Sergei Eisenstein, Vsevolod Pudovkin, and Dziga Vertov, who also became Ivens’ friends. Through these connections, The Bridge was widely shown abroad, including the Soviet Union.

Deleuze discusses both films in the seminars listed below.