Know Your Enemy: Japan

Joris Ivens was a Dutch documentary filmmaker and committed communist. Born Georg Henri Anton Ivens into a wealthy family, Ivens went to work in one of his father's photo supply shops and from there developed an interest in film. He completed his first film at 13; in college he studied economics... with the goal of continuing his father's business, but an interest in class issues distracted him from that path. He met photographer Germaine Krull in Berlin in 1923, and entered into a marriage of convenience with her between 1927 and 1943 so that Krull could hold a Dutch passport and could have a "veneer of married respectability without sacrificing her autonomy." Originally his work focused on technique - some argue that it had that focus at the cost of relevance, especially in Rain , a 10-minute short filmed over 2 years which features impressive cinematography and a number of 'characters' but no information about them aside from what was visible, and in The Bridge , which showed a frank admiration of engineering and also featured a number of "characters" but again did not give any information about them.
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Frank Russell Capra was a Sicilian-born American film director. He emigrated to the U.S. when he was six, and eventually became a creative force behind major award-winning films during the 1930s and 1940s. His rags-to-riches story, having worked his way through college, has led film historians... like Ian Freer to consider Capra the "American dream personified." Capra became one of America's most powerful directors during the 1930s, winning three Oscars as Best Director. Among his leading films was It Happened One Night , which became the first film to win all five top Oscars, including Best Picture. Other leading films included Mr. Deeds Goes to Town , Lost Horizon , You Can't Take It With You , Mr. Smith Goes to Washington , Meet John Doe , Arsenic and Old Lace , It's a Wonderful Life and State of the Union . Because of his early fame as a director, his name was listed "above the title" of his films when they were publicized. People "flocked to the theaters" during the 1930s and 1940s to see films directed by Frank Capra.
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