Indonesia Calling

Indonesia Calling (1946)

Filmed secretly in Sydney by Dutch documentarian Joris Ivens, this short records the solidarity of Indonesian seamen, Australian trade unionists, and local activists who refused to support Dutch efforts to restore colonial rule after World War II. More than a chronicle, it was an act of protest that aligned cinema with the Indonesian independence movement.

Date of release
1946-08-09
TMDB
6.1 / 10 (9)
Runtime
23m
Genres
Documentary
Director
Joris Ivens

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Filmed in: Sydney

Indonesia Calling is a 1946 Australian short documentary film directed by Joris Ivens and produced by the Waterside Workers' Federation. The film was a passionate plea in support of Indonesian independence and against Dutch attempts at re-colonization in Indonesia. Narrated by Peter Finch, the film depicts the boycott campaign against Dutch shipping to Indonesia.

Production

Following the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany in June 1941, documentary filmmaker Joris Ivens offered his services to the Dutch government-in-exile. He was then appointed film commissioner of the Dutch East Indies on 28 September 1944. As film commissioner, he agreed to make films shot in the combat zone and, after the Japanese defeat, he would make educational films for the liberated colony.

After arriving in Australia in March 1945, however, Ivens discovered that many members of the Dutch East Indies government-in-exile had differing plans for the colony's future, with many of them seeing van der Plas as a destructive fool. Despite the proclamation of Indonesian independence by Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta, the Dutch still sought to return to their former colony.

Increasingly disenchanted with the behavior of the Dutch government, Ivens was moved by the plight of the Indonesians and the international solidarity shown by the workers. He then resigned from his position as film commissioner on 21 November 1945. In his resignation letter, Ivens noted that the peoples of Indonesia had the right to national independence based on the ideals of the Atlantic Charter.

Filming of Indonesia Calling began in secret five weeks before Ivens' resignation. The first shots for the film were made by Ivens and cameraman John Heyer on 13 October 1945 in Sydney. However, it was only weeks later that Ivens decided to make a film about the boycott campaign. He and Marion Michelle worked together on a scenario on 24–27 October, and a production schedule was written the next day.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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