Zoo

In his time, Haanstra was one of the few filmmakers who used a candid camera to observe the world around him. His aim was not sensation or caricature; he wanted to reveal the irony of daily life, which he captured with a wink, but very sincerely. And how could reality better be caught than with a concealed camera? In Zoo, he registered the interaction between man and animal in Artis Zoo in Amsterdam. He meticulously edited the images into a staggering series of ‘dialogues‘ between animals and zoo visitors. The effect of his experiment was further enhanced by the fact that he did not shoot from the perspective of the visitors, but from inside the cages of the animals. Ten years later, he would make his more ambitious film Bij the beesten af. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)