Cornell Cinema brings the touring 'Films of Joris Ivens' to campus

Cornell Cinema is presenting the acclaimed touring program "The Films of Joris Ivens: Cinema Without Borders" beginning Sunday, April 28. Cornell Cinema is one of only nine North American sites, along with internationally recognized venues including the Film Society of Lincoln Center, the National Gallery of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, to host the series of new 35 mm prints of work by Dutch avant-garde and international documentary filmmaker Joris Ivens. The screenings continue with five programs through May 7. Admission to screenings in Willard Straight Theatre is $5 general/$4 students and seniors. The screenings in Uris Auditorium are free.

"Song of the Rivers," a celebration of international labor solidarity shot by film crews around the world and assembled by Dutch filmmaker Joris Ivens, is featured in the April 28 presentation of "Cinema Without Borders: The Films of Joris Ivens."

Ivens gained an international reputation with "The Bridge" in 1928, and he continued to make films over the next six decades. Collaborating across national borders with some of the most prominent cultural figures of his time, including Ernest Hemingway, Jacques Prévert and Virgil Thomson, Ivens received scores of international prizes, including the World Peace Prize (1955), Cannes Golden Palm (1957), Venice Golden Lion (1988) and the French Legion d'Honneur (1984).

Paul Arthur writes in the most recent issue of Film Comment: "Over a protean 60-year, 60-film professional career, [Ivens] crafted lyrical, if often fiercely partisan, explorations around political and environmental themes, toiling on every continent for 20 different countries in almost every imaginable context for documentary production. ... That his oeuvre is today so little-known is partly a function of its massive dispersion, but that is hardly an adequate excuse."

The series begins with the program "Independence & Propaganda" on Sunday, April 28, at 7:30 p.m. in Uris Auditorium.

The program "Avant-garde" will be introduced by Don Fredericksen, Cornell associate professor of film, on Thursday, May 2, at 7 p.m. in Willard Straight Theatre.

The series continues with the program "Vietnam" on Sunday, May 5, at 7:30 p.m. in Uris Auditorium, and the program "Visual Poetry" will be shown Monday, May 6, at 7:15 p.m. in Willard Straight Theatre.

The series concludes with Ivens' final film, "A Tale of the Wind," on Tuesday, May 7, at 7:15 p.m. in Willard Straight Theatre.

For more detailed information on the program, visit the web site: http://www.ivens.nl.

The program is made possible with the support of the Netherlands Culture Fund; Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands; Ministry of Education, Culture & Science of the Netherlands; Consulate General of the Netherlands, New York; Filmmuseum, Amsterdam; Holland Film; and the Consulate General of France. The project coordinator is Red Diaper Productions (Wanda Bershen, Director). It is co-sponsored at Cornell with the Pentangle Film Program.