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Wigwam (Shining Ray) The Bridge Breakers Rain We Are Building Philips Radio Creosote Komsomol (Song of Heroes) New Earth Borinage The Spanish Earth The 400 Million Power and the Land Indonesia Calling The First Years Song of the Rivers The Seine Meets Paris Before Spring Italy Is Not a Poor Country Travel Notebook A Valparaiso The Mistral Pour le Mistral Far from Vietnam The 17th Parallel How Yukong Moved the Mountains A Tale of the Wind Magnitogorsk, Forging the New Man		. . . A Valparaiso 1963 / France, Chile / B&W and color / 37 min / 35mm Director, Script: Joris Ivens Camera: Georges Strouv, Patricio Guzman, Leonarde Martinez Editor: Jean Ravel Music: Gustavo Becerra, ' Nous irons a Valparaiso' sung by Germaine Montero Commentary: Roger Pigaut (written by Chris Marker) Producer: Luis Carnegio Production company: Argos Films, Cine Experimental de la Universidad de Chile In 1962 Ivens was invited to Chile to teach and make films. Together with students he made . . . A Valparaiso, one of his most moving films. The work contrasts the distinguished history of the seaport with its present state of affairs. We see a city, built on forty-two hills, its wealth and poverty, its daily life on the streets, its sets of stairs, its rack railways, and its bars. Although the port has declined in importance, the rich past is still present in the impoverished city. The film echoes this irony in its dialectical poetic style, interweaving the daily reality (of 1963) with the proud history of the city. Switching partway from black and white to color, the film finally leaves us with a hopeful perspective - that of the children who are playing on the stairs and hills of this beautiful town. A TOPICS A Bird's Eye View of a Documentary Career HELEN VAN DONGEN Kees Bakker beforenext COPYRIGHT:Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival Organizing Committee