De Veluwe

Summary

Educational film about the natural beauty and cultural life of the Veluwe.

A film about the Veluwe made by A.M. van der Wel, the director of the Gemeentelijke Schoolbioscoop in Rotterdam. We see detailed images of villages, towns, moors, streams, ponds, poultry, and sheep farming. Van der Wel shot his own footage (according to the intertitles), but also used existing films. He drew mainly on the ‘city films’ from the catalogue of HAP & BenS. We see, for example, images from the films Oosterbeek aan den Rijn and De Steeg made by the Arnhem film company AFKO; and from the films made for Haghe Film From Arnhem en omstreken to Barneveld and Elburg, directed by Willy Mullens. Radio Kootwijk also plays an important role in this film.

This broadcast transmitter was switched on May 7, 1923, and handled the telegram traffic – and, from 1928 onwards, the radio traffic as well –with the Dutch East Indies. The site is an example of the far-reaching technical developments that quickly changed the worldview in the early 20th century. With the opening of flight routes and radio-telegraphic traffic, the distance to the Dutch East Indies was (virtually) greatly reduced.