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JEAN BATTEN - THE GARBO OF THE SKIES

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Jean Batten, star of the 1930s, died alone on a Spanish island in the mid-1980s. Some say she paid the ultimate price for her secrecy.

Using archival footage, clippings, photographs and quotes from her letters and diary, this film looks at the life of “the aviator with the glamorous exterior”; her youth in New Zealand, her relationship with her mother, her string of adoring men and of course her heroic flights.

Jean Batten left New Zealand for London in 1930 telling her father she was going to study music. Instead she learned to fly. She set a world record flying from England to Australia, was the first woman to fly the South Atlantic and in 1936 flew from England to New Zealand.

Acquaintances speak of a lonely woman who was “curiously unfulfilled”.

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Year 1988

Reference number F20063

Collection Film and Video Collection

Media type Moving Image

Place of Production NEW ZEALAND/AOTEAROA

Duration 0:52:00

Production company Energy Source Productions, Ian MacKersey

Credits Producer: Ian MacKersey
Writer: Ian MacKersey
Director: Ian MacKersey
Narrator: Stuart Devenie
Research: Caroline MacKersey
Photography: Mike Haworth
Photography: Bayly Watson
Additional Photography: Michael Gore
Additional Photography: Alan Locke
Additional Photography: Trevor Johnson
Quotes Spoken: Megan Edwards
Music: Bernie Allen
Sound Mix: Craig Perry
Editor: John Gilbert
Executive Producer: Peter Sainsbury