''Misère au Borinage'' ( French; ), also known as ''Borinage'', is a 1934 Belgian

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

directed by

Henri Storck Henri Storck (5 September 1907 – 17 September 1999) was a Belgian writer, filmmaker and documentarist. In 1933, he directed, with Joris Ivens, ''Misère au Borinage'', a film about the miners in the Borinage area. In 1938, with Andre Thirifays ...

and Joris Ivens. Produced during the Great Depression, the film's theme is intensely

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

, covering the poor living conditions of workers, particularly

coal mine Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

rs, in the Borinage region of Hainaut Province in

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. It is considered a classic work of political cinema and has been described as "one of the most important references in the documentary genre". ''Misère au Borinage'' was shot in black and white and is a

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized Sound recording and reproduction, recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) ...

with

intertitle In films, an intertitle, also known as a title card, is a piece of filmed, printed text edited into the midst of (i.e., ''inter-'') the photographed action at various points. Intertitles used to convey character dialogue are referred to as "dialo ...

s in French and

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

. It opens with a title card, bearing the slogan: "Crisis in the Capitalist World. Factories are closed down, abandoned. Millions of proletarians are hungry!" and shows footage of the repression of a 1933 strike in

Ambridge, Pennsylvania Ambridge is a borough in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, United States. Incorporated in 1905 as a company town by the American Bridge Company, Ambridge is located 16 miles (25 km) northwest of Pittsburgh, along the Ohio River. The population wa ...

in the United States. The film then shifts to the Borinage, an industrial region in

's Hainaut Province, during and after the general strike of 1932. The majority of the film focuses on the plight of Borinage

rs who have been evicted from their houses and made unemployed following their participation in the strike. It also shows the poor living conditions of the miners and their families. The film makes the argument that strike action could be justified by the poor conditions in which Belgian workers lived. The film was made against the context of the Great Depression and premiered in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

in March 1934. According to Robert Stallaerts, Storck's work as director of ''Misère au Borinage'' justified his status as "father of Walloon cinema" even though he was actually

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

.Historical dictionary of Belgium Scarecrow press, 1999, p. 191. In 2000, a new documentary was made about the Borinage as a tribute to Storck: ''" Les Enfants du Borinage - Lettre à Henri Storck"''.

References

;Bibliography *

External links

* Review of the film and video (version of 1933) without music or comment; French and Dutch titles. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Misere Au Borinage Black-and-white documentary films 1934 documentary films 1934 films Belgian documentary films Films shot in Belgium Films directed by Henri Storck Films directed by Joris Ivens 1930s political films Great Depression films Silent films Belgian black-and-white films

See also

References

External links