Regen (1929)

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Rain is a 1929 Dutch short documentary film directed by Mannus Franken and Joris Ivens. It premiered on 14 December 1929, in the Amsterdam Filmliga's theater, De Uitkijk.

Production conditions

Though Ivens mostly produced Regen by his own means, his involvement with the Amsterdam Filmliga was key to his studies of good practice and interest in formal experiments. In 1927, Henrik Scholte proposed the foundation of the Filmliga in the interest of showing highly avant-garde films and Soviet films which were banned in the West.

Ivens's practical knowledge came not only from these home editing experiments, but also from his inheritance of his family's photography business, which had allowed him to study under several celebrated manufacturers of photographic equipment. One such manufacturer was Emanuel Goldberg, inventor of the Kinamo camera, which derived its name from Greek and Latin: "kine" and "amo", meaning "I love movies".

Ivens completed many of his manufacturing apprenticeships in Berlin, involving himself not only with the photography industry, but with the creative and political scene of Weimar Germany. By the time Ivens arrived in Berlin, it was 1921. The 1918 revolution of workers and soldiers had failed and the Weimar Republic was already perceived as a sham.

Though the Weimar lifestyle did not suit Ivens for very long, features of expressionism and its parent and predecessor, the avant-garde, are clearly visible in Rain. At this time, the avant-garde movement was just being taken up by filmmakers, who were making new discoveries daily about the artistic potential of filmmaking. These filmmakers no longer wanted to produce vapid pieces created simply to entertain the masses.

Ivens created the film with the help of two other men not often credited for their assistance with the production: Cheng Fai, Ivens's housekeeper, and a young John Ferno, known then as Fernhout. Cheng Fai often ventured out with Ivens—he outfitted in an oilskin and boots, Cheng Fai equipped with an umbrella—to assist with gathering footage in the rain, protecting the camera and film from water damage.

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