Joris Ivens and the Role of Film in the Indonesian Independence Movement

Drew Cottle, Angela Keys

Joris Ivens and the Role of Film in the Indonesian Independence Movement

Drew Cottle and Angela Keys

Japan Focus Introduction

From September 1945 to November 1946, the Singapore-based British Southeast Asia Command under Vice-Admiral (later Lord) Louis Mountbatten assumed responsibility for taking the Japanese surrender in Java. A similar role Sukarno (right) and Mohammed Hatta was assumed by the British in taking the Japanese surrender in southern Vietnam. In seeking to assist the Dutch restoration, both Indonesian and Vietnamese nationalists viewed the British in Singapore and the Australian both events – correctly — as a cover for the government oﬀered facilities for the Dutch return to power of, respectively, Dutch and government-in-exile and the Royal Netherlands French colonialists at a time when the British Indies Army. Singapore and Australia were host were vying to recover their own empire in to a large number of Indonesians displaced by Malaya, Singapore, India and elsewhere. On the war, not only seamen as in Australia, but Java, nationalists around Sukarno andlarge numbers of romusha (Japanese forced Mohammed Hatta, having sidelined the veteran labourers) in Singapore where they comprised a revolutionary Tan Malaka, declaredpolitically volatile section of the population. In independence on 17 August 1945, ambiguously exile in Australia and Singapore, they found in the Jakarta house of a Japanese admiral. With unlikely allies among trade union circles, left- demobilized former Japanese auxiliarieswing allies, adventurers, and eventually, well- coalescing into a putative independence army, wishers including the governments and people today's TNI, became a law unto themselves. of newly independent India and the Philippines, among other nations especially those the Arab world. On the other hand, the intelligence services of the British, Dutch, and Australians worked hard to neutralize support networks, Republican blockade busters, and sympathetic individuals, of which Dutch ﬁlm maker Joris Ivens (1898-1989) was evidently one, albeit

1 7 | 3 | 5 APJ | JF from inside the Dutch establishment.

Today, the Australian government seeks to take credit for its support for the Indonesian revolution and, indeed, the shift in US position in support of the UN call for independence in 1949 made possible a diplomatic outcome, but the Western governments, Australia included, played a double game, especially fearing a left- wing outcome as sought by elements both within and without the beleaguered Republic. But, as Rupert Lockwood has explained in his iconic Australian text, Black Armada: Australia and the Struggle for Indonesian Independence, 1942-1949 (Sydney, 1975), credit is due to the internationalist solidarity of the “wharﬁes” and their working class mates who took matters into their own hands in actions that would be repeated during the tempestuous anti-Vietnam war rallies of the 1960s.

Inside Java such groups as the perjuangan or struggle group supported by Tan Malaka came into conflict with the diplomasi line supported by the fledgling Republican government under Sutan Sjahrir. More than 133 groups including socialist youth groups or pemuda, the communists and, for a time, the Muslim party Tan Malaka Masjumi fell in line. Around the slogan of “merdeka atau mati,” independence or death, the struggle front was uncompromising in Obviously, the stakes were huge at this juncture rejection of a Dutch restoration. In February and the Dutch, British, Australians and 1946 they demanded the resignation of the Americans were hardly disinterested Sjahrir cabinet. While Sukarno had beenbystanders. Meanwhile, exiled Indonesian attracted to the struggle camp he now kept his nationalists in Australia removed from the Dutch distance. By March 1946 the struggle front had prison camp of Bogen Digul in West Papua to been weakened by resignations and defections. Australia ahead of the Japanese invasion and Emboldened in its newly won support, the given their freedom in 1943, came together Republican government then launched aafter 17 August 1945 to form the Central counter coup effectively pre-empting Committeethe for a Free Indonesia (CCFI). Notably, emergence of a socialist current in theAustralian waterfront unions including those led nationalist revolution. On 17 March, Tan Malaka by the Communist Party of Australia, rallied in and other struggle leaders were arrested – solidarity. Meantime, former exiles commenced according to recent Indonesian writing - by to return home including Sarjono, pre-war Republican forces on the orders of Sukarno. In communist and leader of the Brisbane-based the same month, the local chairman of the CCFI. Breaking with the old Indonesian communist party (PKI) was also arrested. Communist Party (PKI), Sarjono, threw the

2 7 | 3 | 5 APJ | JF support of his own PKI faction in favor of the Republic. Meantime, from his prison home where he continued to issue proclamations, broadsides, and pamphlets critical of the Republic, Tan Malaka continued to embarrass the moderates around Sukarno and Hatta. Eventually granted his freedom on 16 September 1947, it is entirely plausible that the Republic now saw in Tan Malaka an alternative left-wing pole to the more seriously dangerous PKI.

By the time that the British had departed Java at the end of December 1946, some 55,000 Independence forces 1949 Dutch troops had landed. In the following months, by a combination of military and other means including the deployment of economic Meanwhile, the old pro-Moscow PKI around blockades with Singapore, the Republic's major Musso, recently returned from the Soviet Union, source of cash and clandestine weaponresponded to armed taunts by the TNI Siliwangi supplies, the Dutch had re-established civil Division by counter attacking. The TNI moved administration in Jakarta and other coastal on the so-called Madiun Uprising of September cities. Elsewhere in Indonesia the Dutch 1948 killing Musso, crushing the rebellion, and mounted bloody pacification actions outraging staying the hand of the PKI for years to come. nationalists and antagonizing world opinion. The TNI legend is apparently undimmed as of Against this background, several compromises today. The elimination of the PKI left Tan Malaka were worked out known as the Linggajati as the leading credible left-wing force Agreements (ratified 25 March 1947).denouncing In on Republican radio the long essence, the Dutch recognised Republican expected second Dutch police action or attack control on Java, Madura, and Sumatra, while on the Republic which resulted in the capture of creating puppet states in the rest of the East Sukarno, Hatta, and others, and reiterating his Indies with a view to subordinating the Republic denunciation of the diplomacy line. At this within a Netherlands-Indonesia Union. But, on juncture, fearing a communist left-wing revival, 20 July 1947 – in the face of world opinion - the the US began to shift its support away from the Dutch launched their first so-called policeDutch towards the republican moderates. It action, an attack on Republican territory, to would not be until May 1949 that the two sides restore the colonial status quo ante. As the entered into negotiations leading to the Round military situation see-sawed, in July 1948, a new Table Conference at The Hague and the official agreement called the Renville Agreement was transfer on 27 December 1949 of the brokered with the Hatta cabinet on a US warship Netherlands East Indies to the Republic of of the same name. More or less, the Republic Indonesia. accepted terms under which it was surrounded by Dutch forces. The mass-based PNI or Indonesian Nationalist Party, Masjumi, and the Tan Malaka faction rejected this deal.

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under the Dutch crown, Ivens instead created Indonesia Calling. Only 22 minutes long, the black-and-white 35mm ﬁlm recreated the campaign to prevent Dutch-chartered vessels loaded with troops and military supplies from leaving Australian ports for Indonesia. (1) The short ﬁlm caused a political furore, with the Dutch

Sukarno’s triumphal return to Jakarta in 1949 pressuring Australia's Chifley Government to prosecute those Tan Malaka, however, would not survive to involved in the making of the film. witness this event, having been executed on 19 February on the orders of the military governor Ivens had risked arrest or deportation of East Java. Geoffrey Gunn by directing the film. (2) What spurred a colonial film commissioner to produce such a controversial political film?

Merdeka-Freedom

Appointed Film Commissioner of The Netherlands East Indies on 28 September 1944, in September and October of the following year Joris Ivens directed Indonesia Calling (1946), a ﬁlm which was anathema to Dutch colonial interests. Employed to produce propaganda endorsing Joris Ivens Holland's liberation of Indonesia from Japanese occupation and its post-war Prior to Indonesia Calling, Joris Ivens' plans for limited Indonesian autonomy work reﬂected his interest in

4 7 | 3 | 5 APJ | JF recounting historical events through a "dangerous Communist" who was film. He attempted to illustrate that "strongly suspected of being a Soviet extraordinary events involve ordinary espionage agent". The FBI provided an people. The historical films of Ivens adverse security report on Ivens to included a protracted Belgian miners' their counterparts, The Netherlands strike, the first Soviet Five-Year Plan, Forces Intelligence Service, in which the Spanish Civil War and the Chinese he was described as "one of the most resistance to Japanese invasion. (3) dangerous Communists in the United Ivens was not simply a documentary- States" and a member of the maker, as his interest in the Communist Party in both Russia and composition of different images and Germany. The report did not accuse sounds produced both dramatic and Ivens of espionage. Ivens was artistic results. His most frustrating informed when he later applied for a period as a film director occurred in re-entry permit to the United States in the last years of World War II, when February 1945 that if he left the Ivens worked in Hollywood as adviser country he would be refused re- to the producer of The Story of GI Joe admittance. (5) (William Wellman, 1945), which was eventually released as a fictional film. Ivens was offered the position of The (4) Netherlands East Indies Film Commissioner by Charles Van der Plas, Hollywood proved a disappointment the Dutch delegate to the Allied for Ivens. Nevertheless, he became Supreme Command in the Pacific and involved in its cosmopolitan left-wing the emissary of the Lieutenant community, which included playwright Governor of The Netherlands East Bertolt Brecht, composer Hans Eisler, Indies government in exile. (6) Van der philosopher Herbert Marcuse and Plas told Ivens that the post-war Dutch atomic scientist Robert Oppenheimer. East Indies would promote unity in Ivens' involvement in planning a film diversity, equality and a high degree of depicting the war's impact on self-determination for Indonesians in Norway's merchant shipping was domestic affairs. For whatever reason - abandoned when Greta Gabo refused his lack of creative work in Hollywood, to work with Hollywood's radicals and a belief in the ideals of the Atlantic communists after being warned there Charter being implemented in colonial would be repercussions on her future Indonesia, or an acceptance of acting career in America. Ivens' American Communist leader Earl association with communists and Browder's ideas of capitalism and Marxists allowed the FBI to classify him socialism peacefully collaborating to

5 7 | 3 | 5 APJ | JF build a better post-war world - Ivens the Dutch re-conquest of its occupied accepted the position. (7) colony. (10) Once the film unit was established, Ivens planned to make a Indonesia Calling five-part film about Indonesia's Ivens was commissioned to film the liberation. Refused entry to Indonesia Dutch liberation of Indonesia from because of adverse security reports, Japanese rule and to establish a Ivens could not make any film of its colonial film production service. The 'liberation' on behalf of Dutch Netherlands East Indies had been colonialism. Under an order from conquered and occupied by the General Douglas MacArthur, the Japanese during World War II, but, as Supreme Commander of Allied Forces the war was ending, the Dutch sought in the Pacific, Ivens was banned from to re-take their colonial possession. all war zones. Prior to this ban, Ivens However, having endured colonisation had arranged for the American Army and war-time occupation, the and Hollywood film companies to ship Indonesians were unwilling to see their war footage and film equipment to islands return to Dutch control. (8) The Australia for the film unit's use. American bombing of the Japanese American and Dutch security cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with sabotaged Ivens' plans by reassigning atomic weapons ended the war in the the footage and equipment to a Dutch Pacific. The Japanese surrender freighter which sailed to Batavia in the unleashed the struggle for first days of the boycott. (11) independence in Indonesia. In the Stranded in Sydney, unable and ensuing chaos, British armed forces eventually unwilling to make films for moved into areas around Batavia, the Dutch government in exile, Ivens Java, to secure post-war Indonesia on witnessed on Sydney's waterfront the behalf of The Netherlands. Skirmishes repercussions of the Indonesian between the British troops, Dutch units independence movement. The turmoil and armed Indonesian youth of World War II had left many escalated. Indonesian Independence Indonesian seamen marooned in was declared on 17 August 1945, scuppering The Netherlands' hopes of Australian ports. With the war at an a peaceful resumption of colonial rule. end, these seamen tried to prevent the (9) re-colonisation of Indonesia by refusing to work on Dutch-chartered Following his acceptance of the ships bound for the archipelago. Many position, Ivens had flown to Australia Indonesian soldiers mutinied by to assemble a film crew and to await walking off Dutch troopships in

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Sydney, demanding their freedom, and Australian Seamen's Union enforced independence for Indonesia. and supported the bans. The bans ensured that Dutch-chartered ships It was not only the presence of would not be loaded or manned, and Indonesian seamen that made halted temporarily the Dutch attempt Indonesian independence an to regain Indonesia by force. (14) immediate and electric issue in Indonesian seamen and Australian Australia. In the exigencies of World trade unions were joined in their War II, the Australian government boycott by Australian-based Chinese, provided The Netherlands East Indies Malay and Indian seamen, who also government in exile with its own extra- refused to crew Dutch-controlled ships. territoriality over military camps, barracks, administrative offices, Knowing little about what was hostels, airfields and workshops in happening inside Indonesia because of Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Dutch military censorship, Ivens was Fremantle. In 1943, the Dutch re- deeply moved by the solidarity of the established a prison camp near struggle for Indonesian independence Casino, New South Wales, for in Australia. He felt betrayed by Dutch Indonesian political prisoners officialdom and its subsequent actions transported from Tanah Merah Digul, in Indonesia. Ivens believed that the west New Guinea. (12) When the war Indonesian liberation struggle was to be supported unconditionally. His ended, the 300 Indonesian prisoners position as a colonial film held at Casino demanded to be commissioner had become untenable. repatriated to Indonesia. Indonesian Between late September 1945 and guards serving at the Casino prison November 1945, Ivens retained his echoed this demand and they too were official title even as his subversive film incarcerated. A food strike staged at work advocated Indonesian the Casino prison led to one prisoner independence. (15) being killed and another wounded by Dutch guards. (13) Marion Michelle and Joris Ivens

Australian trade unions launched a Ivens assembled a ﬁlm crew that campaign in support of Indonesian included American photographer independence, imposing black bans on Marion Michelle, Canadian cameraman Dutch-controlled ships bound for the Donald Fraser and his wife, Joan Indonesian islands. The ACTU and Fraser, who was one of the ﬁlm's thirty trade unions led by the editors. A former Indonesian political Waterside Workers' Federation and the prisoner of the Dutch, John Sendoek,

7 7 | 3 | 5 APJ | JF who had worked on a Dutch radio station in California during World War II, was Ivens' sound technician for Indonesia Calling. An Indonesian who had been a soldier in the Dutch colonial forces before fleeing to Australia after Japan invaded Indonesia, John Soedjono assisted Ivens with the sound and other film equipment in the making of the film. As a child and youth, Soedjono had been a dancer at a Javanese court. He performed in the dancing sequence featured in Indonesia Calling. While in Brisbane, Ivens met Soendardjo, a veteran Indonesian political prisoner and Soeparmin, the Indonesian seamen's union's secretary. The conviction and courage of Soendardjo and Soeparmin inspired Ivens, and Marion Michelle and Joris they joined the film unit at Ivens' Ivens filming in Australia insistence. (16) The narration for Indonesia Calling was scripted by By choosing Indonesian independence Catherine Duncan, an Australian before the interests of Dutch actress, playwright and radio colonialism, Ivens would be viewed as scriptwriter. A communist and New a pariah by The Netherlands and its Theatre League member, Duncan was state representatives in Australia. With deeply committed to the project. With the limited equipment provided by the this little company, Ivens proposed to Dutch state, Ivens and John Heyer (an heed the call of Merdeka for Indonesia. Australian cameraman with the newly- (17) created National Film Board) shot the departure of the Esperance Bay. Aboard were 1,400 Indonesians being repatriated to Surabaya, the sole Javanese port held by the Indonesian Republican forces. This footage became the opening sequence of Indonesia Calling. The Esperance Bay's

8 7 | 3 | 5 APJ | JF leaving of Sydney was the only time wrote more than 20 versions of the the Dutch state equipment was used script before Ivens finally approved its by Ivens. (18) As film commissioner for narration by Duncan's colleague, the the Netherlands East Indies, Joris Ivens Australian radio actor, Peter Finch, in a could not be seen to be directing the one-hour hired studio session. (23) The film. Most of the subversive film was commitment of the Waterside shot not by Ivens, but by Marion Workers' Federation to the cause of Michelle. (19) Ivens and Michelle Indonesian independence made the devised the scenario of the film, which various re-enactments of the film on depicted the shipping boycott, in their the wharves and in the harbour rented Elizabeth Bay flat between the possible. 24 and 27 October 1945. The film was shot at moment's notice without Sydney's waterfront was still under reference to a pre-meditated script. war-time security. The wharfies, with The film was literally created by Ivens bands of Asian seamen, often and Michelle in the cutting room from numbering 60 or more, acted out Michelle's film coverage of enacted events which had occurred only days events. (20) From this period until the or weeks before. (24) Michelle shot film was first publicly screened, the film of the troop ship, Stirling Castle, Ivens flat was open to those who took breaking the boycott as it sailed part in or supported the making of through Sydney heads for Indonesia. It Indonesia Calling. was harassed until reaching the open sea by a small boat of Indonesian Apart from members of the film unit, supporters who appealed in Dutch and Australian wharfies, Indonesian, English to the Dutch sailors and Chinese, Malay, Indian and Australian soldiers aboard through a loud hailer. seamen, dissident Dutch soldiers, and Their call for international solidarity former Indonesian political prisoners was answered with expletives, empty gathered nightly to discuss the boycott bottles, rotten vegetables, and bits of campaign, the travails of the wood and iron. (25) This scene was re- Indonesian independence movement enacted by Indonesian, Chinese and and Dutch intransigence. (21) With Australian seamen before Michelle's borrowed film equipment, and only camera, as was the walk-out by ten of 2,400 feet of black-and-white film, the troop ship's British crew members donated largely by Australian who supported the Indonesian cause. servicemen returning from Borneo, (26) Ivens told "the story of the ships that did not sail" (22). Catherine Duncan Most of the film was shot with a 35mm

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Kinamo camera, which Ivens had used Youth League in Sydney's Chinatown to film his documentary, Regen (Rain, and at wharfies' smokos. (30) None of 1929). (27) The film supplier, Kodak, Ivens' salary as colonial film refused to sell film to Ivens or the commissioner was expended on the production company he had formed to film. (31) All of this money was spent make Indonesia Calling. Although film on processing, printing and hiring stock was in short supply, Kodak did editing equipment. All labour was not deny it to other commercial given freely by the Ivens group and buyers. It seems that Kodak the many extras involved in the re- executives may have been informed enactments. (32) that their stock should not be supplied for an illegal film which threatened The Netherlands' national interests. In a security file on Indonesia Calling, an undated scribbled note reads, "Kodak agreed not supply Mr Ivens with film footage." (28)

The Australasian Film Syndicate, Ivens' production company, consisted of a chairman, Eddy Allison, an ex-RAAF clerk, a communist and actor in the New Theatre League, and the Indonesia Calling still directors: Joris Ivens; Bondan, a former political prisoner, leading Indonesian The Dutch intelligence service activist and secretary of the Australia- believed Ivens was behind the making Indonesia Association; John Nally, a of the film, which remained unnamed small metals manufacturer at Granville until it was completed. Throughout the in western Sydney and communist film's long gestation, Ivens remained sympathiser; and J. T. Lee, a Chinese colonial film commissioner, even as he barrister and legal advocate for the subverted his role creatively. If it were Chinese Seamen's Union. (29) The proven that Ivens was its maker, he syndicate was to finance, manage, faced not only dismissal from his post sponsor and distribute Indonesia but possible arrest and deportation to Calling. Its paid-up capital of 1,000 Holland. Ivens knew that Dutch pounds was amassed largely from security were monitoring his every collections by members of the Chinese movement through Australian Seamen's Union and the Chinese intelligence wire-tapping his telephone

10 7 | 3 | 5 APJ | JF conversations. Months of intense the picture editing of Indonesia Calling surveillance and the making of a film in one night. on the run without money ruined Ivens' health. He suffered from chronic Indonesia Calling bronchitis and constant asthma After its final script was narrated by attacks. (33) Finch, the film was first screened in On 21 November 1945, after most of the Newsreel Theatrette at Kings Cross the footage of the illegal film had been before an audience of Indonesians on shot, Ivens resigned from his official 9 August 1946, a few days short of the post. In his resignation, Ivens one-year anniversary of Indonesia's denounced the actions of the Dutch declaration of independence. The government in Indonesia. After his screened film listed no credits to its resignation, Ivens was accused of makers. For a week, the film was using Dutch equipment and material to shown three times daily to packed make the illegal documentary. Despite houses of workers and supporters of lingering suspicions, an audit of the an independent Indonesia. The film film unit's books proved that there was was immediately denied an export not "anything wrong with the financial licence by the Commonwealth side of the Unit" (34). Censorship Board because its commentary offended Dutch With Michelle, Ivens repaired to imperialism. In Federal Parliament, an Blackheath in the Blue Mountains, Opposition front bencher, Harold Holt, west of Sydney, to recuperate. Six demanded that the film be months elapsed before Ivens returned immediately banned because it was to Sydney to shoot the unfinished communist propaganda which harmed film's climax of the Patras steamship's Australia's relationship with The return to Sydney. Indian crew Netherlands and undermined the members aboard the frigate had been Dutch effort in Indonesia. The film was forced at gunpoint to break the eventually passed for export in waterfront blockade. The ship, laden December 1946. Prime Minister Ben with ammunition, sailed out to sea Chifley stated that the film "did not before the Indian seamen stopped the express the views of the government engines. Their act of mutiny forced the [Š] and the government was not ship's return to Sydney harbour. Once responsible for it" (35). The this scene of defiant solidarity was re- Communist Party newspaper, The enacted, all of the shooting was Tribune, described Indonesia Calling as complete. Ivens and Michelle finished "Australia's first labour film [Š] it gives

11 7 | 3 | 5 APJ | JF the feeling of tension and history being [Š] The strength of these made by the working people." (36) quiet Indonesian people as they stand before the KPM In October 1946, the film, with a Malay building, refusing to sail, text, was taken through the Dutch to work, to do anything. blockade by Ted Roach, a member of The masses fully in step the Waterside Workers' Federation with the Tanah Merah delegation to Jogyakarta, the heroes, with the French Indonesian Republican forces and Russian Revolutions. stronghold. According to Roach, the [Š] Never before have I film was shown endlessly to captive been so aware of the audiences during his weeklong stay. renewal of the link (37) In Paris in 1952, Catherine between artist and Duncan recalled the memory of the audience. We were on trial making of Indonesia Calling: that evening, and our testimony would be In my case, there was also judged, not only by the the double responsibility of small group of 25 expressing the real witnesses, but by the sympathy of the Australian whole Indonesian people. working people - these Before such an audience people who, for the time, there could be no excuse took possession of the [for the] lie, the half truth, screen. [Š] We have been or the failure to paid the profoundest comprehend the struggles compliment an artist can and aspirations of a nation receive. Our work has been occupied for more than "needed". Finished, the film 300 years. (39) had become 'theirs', an arm they could trust and use in In Australia, Ivens had become the their fight for independence. director of a film of which he officially (38) could take no part - where "some actions happened at night and couldn't After the first screening of Indonesia be filmed; some were missed, some Calling, Ivens noted in his diary: were created, some initiated" (40). After its screening, he could not return It's not a personal story, to The Netherlands or America. but personal photography. Indonesia Calling had made him an

12 7 | 3 | 5 APJ | JF apostate. As the Cold War gathered, 2009. only Eastern Europe offered an entry point for the Dutch filmmaker. Readers of this article are referred to Elizabeth van Kampen’s Memories of the Dutch East Indies: From Plantation Society to Prisoner of Japan Drew Cottle is a senior lecturer in Politics at the University of Western Notes Sydney. He has an abiding interest in 1. Over a four-year period, the the worldwide struggle of workers and shipping ban in Australian ports held liberation movements. His most recent up a total of 559 vessels, which book is The Brisbane Line: A included 36 Dutch merchant ships, Reappraisal. passenger liners and troopships, two Angela Keys is a PhD candidate with tankers and other oil industry craft, the Centre for Rural Social Research at 450 landing barges, nine corvettes and Charles Sturt University. She is a co- seven submarine chasers. Three Royal author of a paper on the 1990 Australian Navy vessels and two tramways strike in Melbourne, British troopships were also black- published in the 2005 National Labour banned. Lord Louis Mountbatten, the History Conference. Commander-in-Chief of British forces in the Far East, travelled to Sydney in Geoffrey Gunn is the translator of Tan January 1946 to persuade the Malaka's 'Naar de Republiek Indonesia' Australian maritime unions to end their (1995) and author of Singapore and the Asian Revolutions (2007). A faculty member at boycott on Dutch shipping. Nagasaki University, he is a coordinator of The Mountbatten's efforts failed. See Asia-Pacific Journal. Rupert Lockwood, Black Armada (Sydney: Australasian Book Society, The original article was published at 1975), passim. The ultimate success of Scenes of Cinema in 2006. the selective on Dutch shipping This lightly edited version is published depended upon the Chifley Labor at The Asia-Pacific Journal on January government's refusal to intervene in 15, 2009. the dispute. Australia was largely unaffected by the ban as there was Recommended Citation: Drew Cottle, virtually no trade between Australia Angela Keys, “Joris Ivens and the Role and war-ruined Holland. Had the of Film in the Indonesian Federal government attempted to Independence Movement” The Asia- break the ban, Australia's maritime Pacific Journal, Vol. 3-5-09, January 15, trade would have been threatened by

13 7 | 3 | 5 APJ | JF industrial action. These questions are Commissioner, 1944, Item 143, barely considered by most accounts of 2.1.143, Joris Ivens Archives, European the boycott campaign. See W. J. Foundation Joris Ivens Municipal Brown, The Communist Movement and Archives, Nijmegan, The Netherlands. Australia: An historical outline - 1890s 7. Schoots, p. 195. Schoots' to 1980s (Haymarket: Australian conclusion that "Browderism" Labour Movement Publications, 1986), influenced Ivens remains speculation. pp. 164-6; Ralph Gibson, The Fight Nevertheless, Browderism exercised a Goes On: A picture of Australia and the marked influence over American and world in two post-war decades Australian communism during the (Maryborough: Red Rooster Press, Pacific War and early post-war years. 1987), pp. 65-7; and Margo Beasley, See Alastair Davidson, The Communist Wharfies: A History of the Waterside Party of Australia: A short history Workers' Federation of Australia (Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, (Rushcutter's Bay: Halstead Press in 1969), pp. 157-9. association with the Australian National Maritime Museum, 1996), pp. 8. Malcolm Caldwell and Ernst 127-30. Utrecht, Indonesia: An Alternative History (Chippendale, Sydney: 2. IVANS, Joris (IVENS), A6126/XMO, Alternative Publishing Co-operative 18, 1945-1949, National Archives of Ltd, 1979), pp. 61-8. Australia, Canberra. 9. Caldwell and Utrecht, pp. 67-74; 3. Rosalind Delmar, Joris Ivens: 50 Anthony Reid, The Indonesian Years of Film Making (London: British Revolution, 1945-1950 (Westport, Film Institute, 1979); Carlos Boker, Connecticut: Greenwood, 1974), pp. Joris Ivens, Film-maker: Facing Reality 23-47. (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1978). 10. Schoots, pp. 194-197.

4. See the magisterial study of Ivens' 11. Gerda Jensen-Hendriks, "Bersiap: life and work by Hans Schoots, Living Joris Ivens and the early Indonesian Dangerously: A Biography of Joris revolution", European Foundation Joris Ivens (Amsterdam: Amsterdam Ivens newsmagazine, Issue 9, University Press, 2000), pp. 179-93. November 2003, p. 21.

5. Schoots, pp. 188-92. 12. Rupert Lockwood, "The Indonesian Exiles in Australia, 1942-1947", 6. Copies of appointment as Film Indonesia, 10 October 1970, p. 37.

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13. Ibid, pp. 37-56. 26. Graham Cutts, "Indonesia Calling and Joris Ivens", in Albert Moran and 14. Lockwood, Black Armada, passim. Tom O'Regan (Eds), An Australian Film 15. Schoots, pp. 198-200. Reader (Sydney: Currency Press, 1985), p. 354. 16. Ibid, p. 198. 27. Cutts, "Indonesia Calling and Joris 17. Ibid, pp. 197-8. Extensive security Ivens", p. 356. 'information' on Duncan and the Indonesian members of the Unit is 28. "East Indies - Film, Indonesia found in "East Indies - Film, Indonesia Calling", A1838, 401/3/9/1/4, National Calling", A1838, 401/3/9/1/4, National Archives of Australia, Canberra; Cutts, Archives of Australia, Canberra. See p. 356. also Catherine Duncan's security file: 29. Oral History Record No. 226112. Duncan, Catherine, A6126, 17, See also Allison's security file: 1937-1949, National Archives of ALLISON, EDMUND CHARLES, B883, Australia, Canberra. NX21097 (1939-1948), National 18. Schoots, p. 200. Archives of Australia, Canberra. Encouraged by Ivens, Allison directed 19. Catherine Duncan, "In the film, Coaldust, for the New South Relationship with Paul Strand and Joris Wales South Coast Miners' Federation Ivens; The legacy today", European in 1946. The mines on the South Coast Foundation Joris Ivens newsmagazine, had the worst record for miners with Issue 9, November 2003, p. 19. 'dusted lungs' of any region in Australia. Later he shot a film on May 20. Ibid. Day for the Sydney May Day 21. Oral History Record No. 226112, Committee. It was followed by Words Allison, Edmund, National Film and For Freedom made with Cecil Holmes. Sound Archive Office, Woolloomooloo; This film traced the history of the Schoots, p. 200. working-class press in Australia. See Bob Gowland's obituary to Eddie 22. Oral History Record No. 226112. Allison in The Guardian, No. 1223, 13 23. Ibid. April 2005.

24. Ibid. 30. Arthur Gar Lock Chang, interview with Drew Cottle, Haymarket, Sydney, 25. Lockwood, Black Armada, pp. 11 November 2003. Arthur Gar Lock 225-8. Chang, a welfare oﬃcer of the Chinese

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Seamen's Union and a member of the parliament that the Australian National Chinese Youth League, also helped Film Board (ANFB) had not been striking Indonesian seamen find food involved in the making of the film. A and accommodation within Sydney's number of those who helped Ivens had Chinese community. joined the ANFB. Catherine Duncan was among them. It was suspected 31. Oral History Record No. 226112. that a member of the ANFB was Copies of resignation as Film reporting to the security service on the Commissioner and related papers, political activities of other ANFB staff. 1946, Item 147, 2.1.147, Joris Ivens See Albert Moran, Projecting Australia: Archives, European Foundation Joris Government Film since 1945 (Sydney: Ivens, Municipal Archives, Nijmegan, Currency Press, 1991), pp. 34 -5. The Netherlands. 36. Tribune, 13 August 1946, p. 3.

32. Cutts, pp. 358-9. 37. Ted Roach, interview with Drew Cottle, East Hills, New South Wales, 2 33. Schoots, pp. 200-1. June 1989. 34. Ibid, p. 205. 38. East Indies - Film Indonesia 35. Cutts, p. 351. See also the Calling, A1838, 401/3/9/1/4, National security ﬁle: "Netherlands: protest at Archives of Australia, Canberra. ﬁlm, 'Indonesia Calling'", A1067, IC 16, 39. IVANS, Joris (IVENS) AG126, 18, 46/49/7 (1946), National Archives of National Archives of Australia, Australia, Canberra. In answering Canberra. questions about Indonesia Calling, the Prime Minister had to assure 40. Cutts, p. 359