“Heart-stopping. Funny. A ripping yarn!“ Woodend resident Michael Dillon’s latest documentary, The Great White Whale, is an adventurous tale of courage and comradery.
After receiving praise and five awards at film festivals and screenings across the globe, the documentary is coming to Castlemaine’s Theatre Royale on September 15.
Dillon takes his audience on a 10-man expedition to Heard Island, where Australia’s highest peak, ‘Big Ben’, lies waiting among the vicious waves of the Southern Ocean.
Having visited the site himself while working with Australian Geographic in 2012, Dillon noted how “the sudden sight of a snowy volcano almost three thousand meters high, looming straight out of the sea was a sight I will never forget”.
Inspired after helping with the original expedition preparation 60 years ago, Dillon has delicately strung together a colourful narrative from original 1960s footage of the trip, interviews with the crew and a moving soundtrack.
“I love filmmaking as it combines all the arts, most powerfully music. Because the epic story this film tells is partly sung by one of the expeditioners, and sung most beautifully, I knew I was off to a great start,” he said.
From contracting malaria in the Andes to breaking a collarbone in an Indonesian tomb, Dillon’s 50 years of travel has taken him on adventures worth a thousand stories. He said every pursuit was worth it, feeding a “Moby Dick like obsession” he has with his creative projects.
The Great White Whale will screen throughout Australia and New Zealand until the end of the year. Showing times and information are available online.
Lara Prust
