Congratulations to KIDS FIRST! producer William VanDerKloot
This producer of KIDS FIRST! titles such as The Big Airshow is winning awards with his title, “Flying the Secret Sky.” The Story of the RAF Ferry Command has recently been honored with awards at a number of prestigious film festivals. The program most recently won Best Feature Documentary at CinegearExpo in Los Angeles, where it was screened at Paramount Studios.
The film also won the Golden Ace Award at the Las Vegas Film Festival, and the Special Jury Award at the Worldfest Houston Independent International Film Festival. At the Las Vegas Festival, there were over 2000 entries from 20 countries, and at Worldfest Houston there were over 4500 category entries from 37 countries.
Earlier this year, “Flying the Secret Sky” won the prestigious CINE Golden Eagle for feature-length documentary.
Flying the Secret Sky tells a story of passionate risk-taking, of young men braving dangerous flights in primitive aircraft. These “cowboys of the air” are forgotten heroes of the war, who flew without guns and embodied an improvisational spirit that was key to Allied victory. Their story includes the American civilian chosen to fly Winston Churchill to secret wartime meetings, during the darkest days of WW II.
The documentary special was filmed in HD on-location in the US, Canada and the UK. It has aired nationally on PBS. WGBH – Boston is the Television distributor, and PBS Video distributes a feature-length version on DVD, which is available now. The program is also distributed worldwide by PBS International.
The story is told by the veteran aviators themselves, including Air Commodore Taffy Powell, Kirk Kerkorian, and Bill VanDerKloot, the American civilian pilot who flew Winston Churchill during the war. Included is never-before-seen home movie footage of Churchill in the American-built B-24 that safely delivered him to vital war conferences and secret meetings. Also included is rare footage of Ferry Command aircraft and crews from archives around the world, as well as original footage and CGI.
Before the U.S entered the War, most of the Ferry Command pilots were American civilians who pioneered the global air routes we use today. Theirs is one of the great unknown stories of the war and of aviation history.
For more information go to www.flyingthesecretsky.com.
