John Fernhout

Sky over Holland

John Fernhout

Promotional film (70mm) from 1967 made by John Fernhout. The film shows the characteristic Dutch landscape that was portrayed and made famous by the great 17th century Dutch painters.

L'île de Pâques

Henri Storck, John Fernhout

Maurice Jaubert

The first Easter Island documentary, filmed in 1935 when the Belgian naval ship Mercator came to collect Drs. Henri Lavacherry and Alfred Métraux, who had arrived six months before to carry out archaeological and ethnological work. The film, directed with melodramatic gusto and featuring a full orchestral score by Maurice Jaubert (who also did the narration), shows islanders, the monuments, and a public dance. A theme of decay and decadence characterizes the film, the motif portrayed gruesomely by extensive close-ups of the inhabitants of the leper colony there at the time. The film suited a romantic image of a mysterious lost civilization, the survivors eking out a pitiful existence on a barren rock. (Grant McCall)

Fortress of Peace

John Fernhout

Wehrhafte Schweiz is a Swiss Army propaganda film, made for the Expo 64 national exhibition in the then-prevailing spirit of geistige Landesverteidigung, "cultural national defense". It portrays the Swiss Army fighting against an unnamed, unseen enemy, using heavy weapons such as flamethrowers, artillery, tanks and bomber aircraft. After the enemy is repelled, the film closes with idyllic shots of beautiful Swiss landscapes. The 20-minute film was shot using the latest action film techniques in the Cinerama format on expensive MCS-70 Super Panorama 70mm stock. (Wikipedia)

Broken Dykes

John Fernhout