Joris Ivens - Regen (1929)

With my recent search of examples of poetic documentaries, I came across Regen by Joris Ivens made in 1929.

Regen is a documentary about the rainfall in Amsterdam as people interact with it before, during and after it. What I do love about this documentary are the angles taken and the variety of different shots. Some of them are interesting to see, especially when you have different angles of the same object or when you see it through the eyes of a viewer inside a bus and you see it as someone peering from under an umbrella Another thing I like about this piece is how the music and the scenes seem to flow together very well. At around 3:07, when the music is different from the first few minutes, the guitar strums seem to match the rain drops falling to the ground. It moves seamlessly as the first three minutes or so, there was the anticipation of rain coming, and when the music change, you could tell that the rain had come.

This documentary has many scenes that don't tell a cohesive story, but at the same time, the theme of showing the rain is the same. This is non-linear and helps me develop an understanding of how non-connecting scenes can create a story. It will be interesting when Lisa and I create our documentary with this type of style in mind as it allows us to open up to the possibilities of different scenes.