Ivens Meet China 2025: A Special Screening & Conversation with Director Zhang Tongdao

Why did Joris Ivens spend fifty years filming China — and call it his second homeland? Haunted by this question, Dutch filmmaker Rene Seegers retraces Ivens’ footsteps from Europe to Hong Kong and mainland China, searching for the faces and places once captured on film. In uncovering forgotten encounters and hidden stories, he reveals a profound bond between a filmmaker and a country that shaped a lifetime.
About the Director
Film director and professor Zhang Tongdao specializes in human-oriented documentaries that allow their subjects to tell their own stories. He captures his protagonists with authenticity and a strong sense of lived reality.
He has conducted extensive research on Joris Ivens’ Chinese documentaries (1958–1976) and his final film, A Tale of the Wind (1988), and created a four-part film on Ivens’ work in cooperation with René Seegers. His crew revisited locations featured in Ivens’ films and interviewed eyewitnesses, including former crew members and individuals portrayed in the original documentaries.
free upon registration