[1] Haanstra's father retired early as a schoolteacher and started his lifelong dream of becoming a painter.

[1] He was later accepted into Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences but would subsequently turn it down as he felt that the long years of study would be nothing in comparison to real life experience.

During his later employment as a press photographer, Haanstra experimented in staged photography, where he would create his first film, Catfish.

During the fifties he made six films for Shell, among others The Rival World (1955) on insects spreading deadly diseases and how to fight them.

[4][5] Due to the increasing trend of the poetic mode documentaries following the events of World War II, many of Haanstra's films contained poetic elements that "encourage viewers to see the mystery, wonder, or beauty of aspects of the historical world[6]" by stressing the film's "mood, tone, and effect much more than displays of factual information or acts of rhetorical persuasion[7]."

Fanfare, a comedy situated in a small Dutch village, is still the Netherlands' second most popular film ever (measured at the box office), only surpassed by Paul Verhoevens Turkish Delight.

In Zoo he experimented with hidden camera filming to capture he true nature of both man and beast.