Nieuwe gronden (New land)1933 Nieuwe gronden (New land, 1933) by Joris Ivens (Nijmegen, 1898 Paris, 1989) is a documentary compiled from existing material on the reclamation of the Zuider Zee (now known as the IJsselmeer). The material includes fragments from Ivens? earlier films Wij bouwen (?We are building?, 1930) and Zuiderzeewerken (?Zuider Zee Works?, 1930), as well as newsreel fragments about the Great Depression.
Ivens? stated intention was ?to make one meticulously edited full-length film entitled Nieuwe gronden that will sum up the epic ?water to bread? project?. The key question at the end of the film was this: what is the point of reclaiming land when food ? corn, coffee and milk ? is being destroyed all over the world because of the Depression? Instead of summing up the epic reclamation project, the film became an indictment of unemployment, stock-market speculation and food destruction. Ivens was denouncing an absurd social system in which land was reclaimed from the sea and corn was grown on it, only to be thrown back into the sea once more.
According to the newspaper Het Volk (21 December 1933), ?Nieuwe gronden is a documentary, but is a good deal more fascinating than an ordinary ?storybook? film. The treatment of the theme, together with Hanns Eisler?s highly evocative music, creates a degree of suspense that is simply electrifying. Although the theme is by no means as turbulent as Eisenstein?s Potemkin, the audience found it no less stirring. One felt they wanted to shout ?Hurrah!? at the working people?s conquest of the sea, and to join in the outcry against the injustice portrayed in the final section of the film?.
