Heien

De 'Algemene Nederlandse Bouwarbeidersbond' (Union of construction workers) commissioned Ivens to make a film on construction activities in Holland and on the union's work. HEIEN is the first part of WIJ BOUWEN and still fits in with the initial studies of form and movement, but at the same time marks the end of the aesthetic early stages. No more expressionism with a fictional subject, but a documentary emphasizing human labour. We see pile-driving activities at an Amsterdam building pit. The wooden piles are driven into the ground with a steam-engine, before their ends are sawed off near the ground. The monkeyram goes up and down and comes closer each time, until in a climax the falling ram is seen from underneath and heads straight for the spectator. 'Old' preserved nitrate copy of the NFM, completed with two titles from a French nitrate copy.