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New Earth

Name: New Earth
Director: Joris Ivens
Released: 1933
Duration: 30 min

Representation Score

1.5/10

Minimal

1933

Director

Joris Ivens

Runtime

30 minutes

Average Rating

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New Showbiz Analysis

New Earth serves as a technical and social document of human intervention in the natural landscape. It captures the massive collective effort needed to transform the Zuider Zee through engineering and labor. While the film lacks diverse representation regarding gender, race, or sexual orientation, it offers a progressive cultural perspective. It celebrates the systemic ability of human organization to reshape the physical world, breaking from the traditional natural order. Ultimately, the work remains tied to a 1930s Western industrial framework. It lacks the identity-based empowerment necessary for a higher diversity rating, focusing instead on the struggle between humans and nature.

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Category Breakdown

Does New Earth have LGBTQ+ representation?

Minimal

This documentary focuses solely on industrial and agricultural reclamation. There are no LGBTQ+ characters or stories about non-straight relationships.

How does New Earth portray gender?

Limited

The film centers on traditional masculine roles related to engineering and heavy labor. It does not challenge traditional views of masculinity or show men in non-traditional roles.

How racially and ethnically diverse is New Earth?

Limited

The documentary focuses on the Dutch land reclamation project and features a homogeneous ethnic makeup. The narrative emphasizes a specific Western national identity.

How does New Earth represent religion and culture?

Good

The film presents a secular, human-centric view of progress by showing humans' triumph over nature. It highlights organized collective labor over religious or romanticized interpretations of the landscape.

Does New Earth include disability representation?

Minimal

There are no characters with visible or invisible disabilities in this historical overview of the Zuider Zee project.

Present on Screen

The film offers a progressive cultural framing by celebrating collective human organization and systemic progress.
It provides a modernist, secular view of the world that moves away from traditional romanticism of nature.

Limited or Absent

The narrative lacks diverse representation, particularly regarding gender, race, and sexual orientation.
The film is limited by a homogeneous cast reflecting the socio-historical constraints of 1933 Netherlands.

Official Synopsis

The film is a documentary portraying a struggle as man tries to subdue nature. To prevent flooding and for purposes of land reclamation, the people of the Netherlands struggle and succeed in building a breaker, thereby eliminating the wild inland body of water once known as the Zuider Zee (now called Ijsselmeer).

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