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The Great White Whale was released last year and perhaps less well known, but it is possibly the best adventure documentary ever made, told by the men who lived it. This screening includes a Q&A session with one of the men, John Crick and Michael Dillon, Director and Producer.

This multiple international Grand Prize-winning film follows ten mountaineers/scientists/adventurers, including three New Zealanders, who sailed their schooner Patanela to Heard Island, situated in the middle of the Southern Ocean, to climb Australia’s highest peak, Big Ben (Mawson Peak) on Heard Island. They called it the Great White Whale for the way the mountain looms from the ocean, and because an earlier attempt nearly killed members of the party, including leader Warwick Deacock and Prof Grahame Budd, five different times.

The expedition is wild, funny, moving and down to earth: the leader, Deacock, cooks for his crew, the famous skipper Bill Tilman gets them there, and ingenious Kiwi engineer Colin Putt keeps the vessel afloat with humour and resourcefulness. The youngest crew member, New Zealander John Crick, became a songman and his powerful songs, woven with Paul Jarman’s compositions, underscores the largely original footage of this powerful unforgettable documentary.