Indonesia Calling

On November 21,1945, Joris Ivens resigned as Film Commissioner of the Dutch East-Indies in Sydney, Australia. He disagreed with the Dutch decision to send troops and weapons to subdue the Republic of Indonesia newly proclaimed after Japan's capitulation by force of arms. After resigning, and with very limited financial resources, Ivens decided to make a film about the dock strikes which were organized in Australia in solidarity with the Indonesian Republic. The events culminated in the return of the Patra, a ship that was forced to return to Sydney harbour by its East Indian crew after leaving port-carrying weapons to the Dutch forces in Indonesia. Ivens employed modest means to reconstruct this feat. The result, INDONESIA CALLING, is a short pamphlet film completed in the summer of 1946. The fact that Ivens had made an 'anti-Dutch' film was held against him by some of his fellow-countrymen for many years.