THE GREAT WHITE WHALE SPECIAL SCREENING + Q&A

The Great White Whale award winning film is to breach spectacularly at the Majestic Sawtell at 7pm on Tuesday October 22nd. The Great White Whale isn’t a whale. It’s a mountain. A mountain few have heard of. On an island few have heard of. Ironically, the island is Heard Island.

“Big Ben, an active volcano, is higher than Mt Kosciuszko and rises out of the wild Southern Ocean like a breaching whale – hence the title,” explains its internationally acclaimed Australian filmmaker, Michael Dillon.

Through stunning, and previously unseen archive vision and interviews with the adventurers, this feature-length documentary recounts the tale of how a crazy idea turned into an extraordinary expedition, culminating in the first successful summiting of Australia’s highest peak.

Directed by internationally acclaimed adventure film make Mike Dillon, the film is a decades in the making telling of the 1964 expedition to sail across the wildest seas on earth, to summit the loneliest island on earth, a mighty volcano of fire and ice. Led by the legendary Bill Tillman, the ten man crew nearly died five times, but made the summit of Australia's highest peak on an island so far away.

The Soundtrack for the film was composed by well-known Australian composer and local Mid North Coast resident, Paul Jarman, who will share the Q&A session at the screening. The music score is a riveting homage to the ‘Golden’ age of cinema, complete with rousing orchestral fanfares. This is Paul’s fourth feature film score with Mike. The sound mixer Michael Worthington is another local, and thanks to the wonderful ingredients of brilliant music and the vibrant sounds of nature and wildlife, the soundtrack of this film is one of its greatest assets. Someone said you can sit through this film with your eyes closed and still feel very glad you came.

“This is an amazing, forgotten, Australian story, which also gives audiences a window onto one of the most spectacular parts of the world."