1969 was a miraculous year, both in sports and in music, in Belgium as well as worldwide. It was the year of Woodstock: Three days of peace and music, the bed-in of John Lennon and Yoko Ono in the Hilton of Amsterdam, the first flight of the Concorde, and the very last public performance of the Beatles on the roof of the Apple Records Studio. Finally, VAT was introduced in Belgium in 1969 and King Baudouin officially opened the Kennedy Tunnel in Antwerp.
“De zomer van ’69” brings the stories of 1969 through unique testimonies and anecdotes and makes use of original sound and image fragments. It is a co-production between Lonely Alien, Watertower TV Productions, Eén and Proximus.
Robin Vandenbergh directed the docu, Michael Gykiere is DOP and Ludwig Bollaerts is the showrunner.
Teaser shown on public television
The story
The documentary tells the story of Eddy Merckx’s Tour win through testimonies of fellow riders, teammates, reporters, family, and supporters of Merckx, such as his FAEMA colleagues Martin Van den Bossche, Frans Mintjens, Pietro Scandelli, Jos Spruyt and sports director Marino Vigna. Cycling legend and ex-Tour winner Felice Gimondi will be featured, as well as well-known supporters Jean Blaute, Jean Marie Leblanc, Howard Gutman and the Heleven family.
Crew recreating the Col d'Aubisque where Eddy Merckx claimed victory
Our contribution
Lonely Alien was responsible for planning and filming all interviews through the documentary. This trip took us to Italy, the United States, Belgium and France. In addition, our team was responsible for a part of the post-production: the processing of the shot images, the animation of photos and the construction of the miniatures.