In 1934, the Belgian director Henri Storck asked the then 21-year-old cameraman John Fernhout to capture the archaeological expedition the sailing ship De Mercator made to Easter Island, the island in the South Pacific widely famous for its mysterious giant statues. Fernhout filmed the rugged nature of the island, but also the human misery in the leper colony. And the transport of one of the monumental sculptures that the expedition took back to Belgium. From the footage, Storck edited three films, of which Paaseiland is the first.
