Joris Ivens

The greatest Dutch documentary film-maker ever, a cosmopolitan, anarchist and communist.

Joris Ivens was the second of the five children of the successful merchant in photographic articles Cornelis "Kees" Adrianus Peter Ivens (24 Febr. 1871, Nijmegen - 29 Augustus 1941, Nijmegen) and the Catholic Dorothea Louise Jacqueline Antonetta Muskens (4 November 1870, Mook - 13 May 1948, Nijmegen), who married 17 May 1894 in Nijmegen. His father C.A.P. Ivens was the director of the CAPI photo shop chain. His father hoped that Joris would take them over, but "NV Foto- en Kinohandel Lux" of Th. R. Zwart sold it in 1943. The photographers chain fused in 1961 as Capi-Lux (1961-1996).

C.A.P. Ivens was a socially and culturally active driven man. At home he played Schubert , invited artists like Jan Toorop, Eugène Lücker and Henri Pieck, took his family to the cinema, theatre and the Concertgebouworkest. Outside he was active in Liberal local politics (Recht voor Allen, Rights for all) and in professional and amateur societies. Unlike his more traditional wife, he seldom visited the Roman Catholic church. Ivens called his Liberal catholic father "a man with a heavy sense of morality" and learned from him to work for the good of all. He believed in the Idea of Progress of the 19th century, but of course he and his children had to study and work hard to reach it.

His elder brother Willem "Wim" Henri Jacob Ivens (3 March 1895 8h30 PM, Nijmegen - 31 October 1938, Amsterdam), became a physician and his younger brother Henri "Hans" Jacques George Ivens (1903-1971) jurist and merchant. Hans was one of the spouses of Clara Eggink. His sisters were Dorothea "Thea" Louise Jacoba Ivens (22 Augustus 1906, Nijmegen - 13 June 1996, Nijmegen), a jurist and Jacoba "Coba" Wilhelmina Ivens (4 November 1909, Nijmegen- 1997, Nijmegen).

Joris had a happy youth in Nijmegen.