Bert Haanstra
(Netherlands)

Bert Haanstra was born in 1916 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 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 addressed 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 close to a hundred awards. He died in 1997 in the town of Hilversum.

Films
Filmography
Kinderen van Ghana
1988
Een monument voor een gorilla
1987
Chimps onder elkaa / The Family of Chimps
1984
Vroeger kon je lachen / One Could Laugh in Former Days
1983
Nederland / The Netherlands
1983
Een pak slaag / Mr. Slotter's Jubilee
1979
Nationale Parken... Noodzaak
1978
Dokter Pulder zaait papavers / Doctor Pulder Sows Poppies
1975
Bij de beesten af / Ape and Super-Ape
1972
Bridges in Holland
1968
Retour Madrid / Return Ticket to Madrid
1967
De stem van het water / The Voice of the Water
1966
Alleman / The Human Dutch
1963
Lewis Mumford on the City, Part 2: The City - Cars or People?
1963
Delta Phase I
1962
Zoo
1962
De zaak M.P. / The M.P. Case
1960
Glas / Glass
1958
Over glas gesproken
1958
Fanfare
1958
Rembrandt, schilder van de mens
1957
God Shiva
1955
En de zee was niet meer
1955
Strijd zonder einde / The Rival World
1955
De verkenningsboring
1954
De opsporing van Aardolie
1954
Het olieveld
1954
Ontstaan en Vergaan
1954
Dijkbouw / The Dike Builders
1952
Nederlandse Beeldhouwkunst tijdens de late Middeleeuwen / Medieval Dutch Sculpture
1951
Panta Rhei
1951
Spiegel van Holland / Mirror of Holland
1950
Boer Pietersen schoot in de roos
1950
De muiderkring Herleeft / The Muider Group Revived
1948

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