Sky Over Holland

This dynamic documentary produced for the 1967 World Fair in Montreal captures the Netherlands from the air. Skillfully edited, these astonishing shots of Dutch skies filmed with a 70mm panorama camera mounted on a fighter jet skillfully create a genuine connection with the landscapes captured in paint by the nation's artists. Besides the skies of Holland made famous by the Dutch Masters, there are echoes of Mondriaan’s geometric color planes in the endless vistas of bright-hued tulip fields. Other scenes provide a fascinating impression of Dutch culture: although the film starts off with nostalgic tableaus (the cheese market in Gouda, folk dancing at a cattle market), a more modern, industrialized Netherlands gradually comes into view. We see the construction of the Delta Works, TV set production in Phillips factories and transportation on inland waterways. The film was screened in Montreal on a screen 20 meters wide, and it was the greatest success in the career of John Fernhout, scion of a famous artistic dynasty. It won a Golden Palm at Cannes in 1967 and in Cannes and was nominated for the Oscar® for Best Documentary Short Subject the following year. The gorgeous 70mm images were scanned at a massive 8K resolution to preserve as much image information as possible, and then carefully restored to produce a 4K projection.