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Bert Haanstra




Haanstra was born in the town of Holten and became a professional filmmaker in 1947. He won international acclaim with his short documentary ''Spiegel van Holland / Mirror of Holland'', for which he received the Grand Prix du court métrage at the Cannes-festival of 1951. During the fifties he made six films for Shell, among others ''The Rival World'' (1955) on insects spreading deadly diseases and how to fight them. In 1958 his documentary '' Glas / Glass '', a filmic improvisation made in a glassfactory, won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject . He directed several fiction films. ''Fanfare'', a comedy situated in a small Dutch village, is still the Netherlands' second most popular film ever (measured at the box office), only surpassed by Paul Verhoevens ''Turkish Delight''. Abroad however, ''Fanfare'' was hardly noticed. In several shorts and in long documentaries like ''Alleman / The Human Dutch'' and ''Stem van het water / The Voice of the Water'' Haansta reflected on The Netherlands and its inhabitants. All these films made him one of the most popular filmmakers in the history of Dutch cinema. The documentary ''Alleman'' was seen in the cinema by 20 percent of the total Dutch population. In the seventies and eighties Haanstra adressed a new subject. He made several films about animals. In the long documentary ''Bij de beesten af / Ape and Super-Ape'' (1973), for which he collaborated with Frans De Waal and Jane Goodall , among others, he compared the behavior of animals and human beings. In total Haanstra received 78 awards. He died in the town of Hilversum .

Haanstra was Officer in the Order Of Orange-Nassau .

A DVD Box Collection of Haanstra's complete works is expected to appear sometime in September 2007.


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