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In the 1930s aviatrix Jean Batten broke solo distance flying records and achieved international fame. Directed by her biographer, Ian Mackersey, Garbo of the Skies chronicles Batten's life through archive footage, interviews, narration from her unpublished memoirs and reconstructions of her epic flights. The film also reveals a lonely private world: a domineering mother, romantic tragedy, an itinerant fall into obscurity, and death in a Majorcan hotel (a mystery solved by research for the film). It screened on TVNZ, and sold to Discovery Channel and the BBC.
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I met and spoke with Jean Batten during a visit to Motat in Auckland when I was a teenager. I didn't realize until many years later that this was a rare and privileged experience. Now I have my memories and her autobiography which she signed for me.
Great doc. Thanks for sharing!
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1989 Listener Film and Television Awards
Editing (John Gilbert)
Finalist - Most
Outstanding Website
The ONYAs 2010 & 2011
Best Entertainment Website
Finalist – Website design
Qantas Media Awards 2009
NZ ON SCREEN 2012
This website has been made with funding from NZ ON AIR ›
Gary Sewall
Posted at 05.32PM - 20.03.2011
I own and fly an original 1929 Gipsy Moth as was shown in this wonderful aviation documentary about Jean Batten. Thank you so much for producing it.