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Joris Ivens' historic short film: `Indonesia Calling'

The Brisbane International Film Festival, 2009, featured a new documentary, directed by John Hughes: "Indonesia Calling: Joris Ivens in Australia"

The Jakarta Post
Sun, August 16, 2009

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Joris Ivens' historic short film: `Indonesia Calling'

T

he Brisbane International Film Festival, 2009, featured a new documentary, directed by John Hughes: "Indonesia Calling: Joris Ivens in Australia". It is one of his series exploring the history of documentary filmmaking in Australia. It tells a story significant to Indonesia, and to the relationship between Australia and Indonesia.

Joris Ivens was something of a radical, and had travelled the world, making films in which he showed ordinary people caught up in extraordinary situations. He went to Spain in 1937, to make a film in support of the Spanish revolution, entitled, The Spanish Earth. He was well respected in The Netherlands as a fine documentary filmmaker.

However after he made Indonesia Calling released in 1946, which took a stand against the Dutch re-colonisation of Indonesia after World War II, he was branded a traitor by the Netherlands government. The USA also condemned him. His own country gave him a very hard time and he was an exile until the mid Eighties. That is when the Dutch Minister for Culture came to Paris and apologised, and finally admitted that history had shown Ivens' attitude to be correct. There was a stamp issued in his honor in 1995 and he was knighted by the Queen. Ivens was pleased to be back in favour with his country, but said he "had to live a long time" for this to happen. He died in 1989 at the age of 90. There is a museum of his work and life, in Nijmegan, Holland.

In 1945 Joris Ivens was in Australia as the Film Commissioner of the Dutch East Indies. Funds for the film stock and other costs, of Indonesia Calling were donated, largely by Chinese water-side workers and their Sydney community. Documents reveal that certain parties asked Kodak not to sell film stock to Ivens, and they agreed. Ivens worked with Marion Michelle, who had to handle much of the actual shooting, since Ivens was still in the employ of the Dutch. He was constantly watched, and the stress affected his health. He endured chronic asthma and attacks of bronchitis. He resigned his position as film commissioner on Nov. 21, 1945.

The final work wasn't done until six months later when Ivens' health improved. He filmed a re-enactment of the mutiny by Indian seamen, aboard the "Patras", a ship laden with arms sailing for Indonesia. After final editing, a narration by Australian actor Peter Finch was added and it premiered to an audience of Indonesians in Kings Cross, Sydney, on the Aug. 9, 1946. It screened three times a day for a week, to packed houses.

The following facts explain why Joris Ivens risked everything and took a stand for a free Indonesia.

During most of the World War II, Australia continued with conservative and old established policies, so when the Japanese invaded Indonesia and the Dutch colonial masters had to flee, Australia allowed a Dutch "Government in Exile" which was located first in Melbourne, then later at Wacol, Brisbane.

When the war ended the Netherlands government was saying that they would return to Indonesia, and allow a gradual transition to independence. However, one day at a wharf in Brisbane, there was an accident, and the contents of boxes being loaded, for shipment to Indonesia were revealed to be guns. By now Ivens realised that Holland had no intention of giving up the colony and were preparing to take it back by force.

Tanah Merah was the name of the prison camp far upstream on the Digul River in West Papua (now Irian Jaya) -a malarial hell-hole, also known as Boven Digul - the camp where the Dutch held their political prisoners. In 1943 they were brought to Australia on a ship named "The Both" and at first were held in prison camps at Cowra and Liverpool, in NSW. There were five hundred men, women and children, some of whom had been imprisoned for many years. Many were actually intellectuals, and creative artists. At the Digul River camp, they had built a Gamelan, from whatever materials they could find, and brought it to Australia with them, where it is held in safe keeping to this day, known as Gamelan Digul.

Dockside workers and railway staff had received desperate notes explaining their predicament as political prisoners. The notes were passed to Australian workers at the docks and rail stations, at the time of their arrival. However the Dutch had lied to the Australian government, describing them as "dangerous psychopaths" and "sincere and militant Communists".

It is illegal to hold political prisoners in Australia and when at last the government found out their true identity they ordered the Dutch to release them immediately.

It was the trade union members who worked to inform the Australian government, and achieved a change of official attitude towards the Dutch.

In Casino, Northern NSW, the Dutch were training hundreds of Indonesians for the Dutch East Indies Army, but after Sukarno and Hatta declared independence, in August 1945 these Indonesian trainees were imprisoned there for refusing to work for the Dutch. Australia also ordered the Dutch to free these Indonesians. Others worked on the Dutch ships, now being used to prepare to re-occupy Indonesia.

In their formerly comfortable and profitable colony, the Dutch faced a passionate force of Indonesian freedom fighters. Australian public opinion and government opinion had turned against them too, thanks to a strong effort by the Australian Waterside Workers Union, who promoted a successful boycott of Dutch supply shipping to Indonesia, known as "The Black Armada". Over a four-year period this black-ban held up 559 vessels.

In October 1945, 1,416 Indonesians were shipped back home at the expense of Australia, aboard the "Esperance Bay". The Dutch refused to pay. These free citizens of the newly proclaimed Republic of Indonesia departed from Sydney, bound for Surabaya, the only port in the hands of the freedom fighters. "Esperance Bay" berthed in Brisbane to pick up more Indonesians. There were emotional farewell scenes at both ports, as thousands of well wishers showered them with gifts. All passengers went voluntarily. No one was deported.

By the time they arrived in Java, some hadn't seen their home island for 20 years. Nineteen of their number, were taken back to Kupang, West Timor, and kept under the supervision of the Dutch. These men were some of the leaders of the ex-political prisoners from Irian Jaya, referred to by the Dutch, as "a boatload of trouble". The Australian government minister Arthur Calwell retaliated by saying, "All the trouble we have experienced has been made by colonial Dutchmen and colonial Englishmen."

It was against this historic backdrop, that Ivens became disenchanted with the behavior of the Dutch government. The departure of "Esperance Bay" was filmed and the footage became the opening sequence in his approximately 20 minutes long film, Indonesia Calling. It was a passionate plea in support of Indonesia's independence, and a condemnation of the Dutch duplicity. It showed the black-bans of the Dutch ships taking place at Australian wharves, as Indian, Chinese and Indonesian seamen, walked off the job.

The film was also taken to Indonesia where it was screened to the freedom fighters, who were gratified to know they had such solid support in Australia. One Indonesian man interviewed in John Hughes' documentary, said that it was screening before Gone With the Wind, and that he and many others went back to see it again and again. Indonesians in Australia did the same.

Director, John Hughes pointed out that at the Dutch Film Awards, the award for Best Documentary is called The Joris Ivens Award. However, a Dutch film professional who attended the seminar told the gathering at the seminar that Joris Ivens' film Indonesia Calling is still "taboo in the Netherlands".

For more information please visit www.teman-teman.com

- Cynthia Webb

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