In negentien drie zeven...
In 1937 - 'nineteen three seven', according to a popular song at the time - the fifth World Jamboree was held in the Netherlands. On Vogelenzang estate near Haarlem, 28,000 scouts from more than forty countries gathered, under the attentive eyes of Queen Wilhelmina and supreme scout lord Baden-Powell. This montage of archive footage of this large-scale celebration is entirely composed of images shot by the ardent amateur filmmaker Wouter Gerard Kuyk, a scout himself. The silent films, mainly in colour, are accompanied by radio recordings. Everything is covered: from the propaganda, the construction and the flag parade to the catering, the folkloric country demonstrations and the song by the Dutch girl guides. The original plan to use this footage to make an international jamboree film was thwarted by the war. Baden Powell's closing speech sounds all the more ominous: `When you have friends in other countries, you do not want war with them.'
