Victoria King, 2002, English, 52 min, colour
Why would a dashing young New York filmmaker find himself on the undulating ice floes off Newfoundland in the 1920s? Victoria King's White Thunder is an absorbing portrait of Varick Frissell and his perilous quest to capture on film for the first time Newfoundlanders’ “struggle for existence against an overwhelmingly cruel environment.” No one had ever used the new sound technology—heavy and cumbersome, yet delicate and difficult to adjust—to film a dramatic feature entirely on location. And what a location: rolling, twisting fields of ice! Frissell’s quest for authenticity would prove treacherous, but the resulting film was a remarkable testament to the people of Newfoundland, as King’s film is to the courage and integrity of Varick Frissell.
Rex Tasker Award for Best Documentary (2002)