This is the first book to survey the entire career of Joris Ivens, a
prolific documentary filmmaker who worked on every continent over the
course of seven decades. More than a biography of a leftist committed to
changing the world through film, The Conscience of Cinema is also a
microcosmic history of the documentary and its form, culture, and place
within twentieth-century world cinema. Ivens worked in almost every
genre, including the essay, compilation, hybrid dramatization, socialist
realism, and more. Whether in his native Netherlands, the Soviet Union,
the United States, Vietnam, or beyond, he left an indelible artistic and
political mark that continues to resonate in the twenty-first century.