Adventure filmmaker brings thrilling tale to Busselton

Internationally awarded film maker Michael Dillon will premiere his latest movie The Great White Whale in Busselton on August 12.

Deep in the wild Southern Ocean, halfway between Australia and Africa, a snowy volcano, almost three thousand metres high, rears up from the sea like a great white whale.

Five times, it tried to kill the first team that sought to reach its summit. Yet back they sailed, through the worst seas in the world, this time with legendary explorer Bill Tilman their skipper.

‘The Great White Whale’ is the tale of the first attempts to climb ‘Big Ben’, the smoking, glacier-ringed volcano on Heard Island, Australia’s loneliest, remotest outpost.

Dillon was a teenager when they set off. He knew the leader of the expedition, Warwick Deacock, through the Duke of Edinburgh’s award scheme.

Some years later he accompanied Deacock to the Everest region. Deacock was filming there for the ABC, but he became ill with altitude sickness, and he handed the camera to Michael.

It would be the first time Dillon ever used a 16mm camera but wouldn’t be the last – he recently celebrated 50 years of adventure filmmaking.

Now, his beautifully-shot original footage of the bold expedition, along with a brilliant music score, and the quirky humour of the expeditioners, adds spice to the little known adventure tale.

Dillon said he was inspired to create the film through the “amazing, forgotten Australian story”.

“It’s one I knew about from the beginning, as I was one of many who volunteered to get the boat ready to sail on time,” he said.

Most of them hadn’t even sailed before, “and one of them, the bravest of them all, couldn’t swim”.

The filmmaker began testing the waters with international audiences, sending evolving versions of the film to International Mountain Film Festivals.

The earliest version of the film won the Grand Prize at the International Mountain and Adventure Film Festival in Bilbao Spain last December.

Since then, it has won four more international awards.

Dillon said the film release was timely due to the Australian Government plans to extend the marine protection zone around Heard Island, with a public consultancy underway to help it decide the restrictions and parameters of the protection zone.

Michael Dillon will introduce the screening of ‘The Great White Whale’ at Orana Cinemas on August 12 from 6:15pm. A Q&A session will follow. Tickets via oranacinemas.com.au

To learn more about the film, visit michaeldillonfilms.com.au