I have just won the Award for Best First Time Filmmaker at the Boston Independent Film Awards, for The Blinding Sea. This is the 23rd award so far, and the 7th in an American film festival!
This comes as great news for me, but also for everyone else who worked on the production, such as: the Inuit descendants of Koleok in Gjoa Haven, Nunavut (as a young woman, Koleok had proposed marriage to Roald Amundsen, although he declined) the Amundsen family in Norway, Marie Frenette, who sings so beautifully on the sound track and provided expert advice for the management of this enormous project and the recording of musical performances, plus my friend and video editor Guillaume Falardeau, and many other people besides.
Just who else worked on the production? Here are the complete credits:
Produced, directed and narrated by: George Tombs
Director of photography: George Tombs
Interviews and on-camera appearances:
Anne-Christine Amundsen Jacobsen
Johan Leon Amundsen
Gloria Corbould
Baron Bernard de Gerlache
Falcon Scott
Hon. Alexandra Shackleton
Julian Evans
Bob Konana
George Konana
Jimmy Konana
Larry Konana
Paul Ikuallaq
Freda Nakoolaq (as her great-grandmother Koleok)
Captain Lise Marchand
Captain Klaas Gaastra
Uranienborg guide Randi Eriksen
Melissa Chierici, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Agneta Fransson, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Lia Dimitruk and Trista Uviluk, picking Arctic cotton in Cambridge Bay
Editor:
Guillaume Falardeau
Additional video:
Guillaume Falardeau
Jim Hawkings
Dan Bach Kristensen
Parks Canada
Pond5 Inc.
Shutterstock Inc.
Mike Stewart
Original artwork:
3D animations: Peter Butler
Illustrations: Iona Fournier-Tombs
Luke Iquallaq, Angaguk with Helping Spirit (sculpture), c/o Winnipeg Art Gallery (Winnipeg, Manitoba)
Inuit carvings of Kiviuq and Kudluk specially commissioned for this film: Damien Iquallaq
Inuit graphic art: Victoria Mamnguqsualuk
Sound design: Julien Bouchard
Original music:
Piano and other keyboard music composed and performed by George Tombs
Vocal music composed and performed by Marie Frenette
Inuit throat singers: Janet Aglukkaq and Robin Ikkutisluk
Trumpet: David Carbonneau
Saxophone and clarinet: Cameron Wallis
Irish whistle: Brad Hurley
Violin and viola: Catherine Hallmich and Laura Risk
Guitars: Pascal Desmeules and Marc Harvey
Percussion: Gilles Hébert
Choral ensemble 6-DS
Sound:
Aurora borealis recordings: Steve McGreevy
Beluga whale recordings: Groupe de recherche et d’éducation sur les mammifères marins (GREMM), Tadoussac (Quebec)
Humpback whale recordings: Catherine Berchok, Mingan Island Cetacean Study and Pennsylvania State University)
Sound studio: Studio d’enregistrement Marie Frenette, Montreal (Quebec)
Dog mushers:
Sean Fitzgerald, Haines Junction (Yukon Territory)
George Konana, Gjoa Haven (Nunavut)
Louis-Philip Pothier, Iqaluit (Nunavut)
Phil Pryzmont, Nome (Alaska)
Readings from exploration narratives:
The English voice of Apsley Cherry-Garrard: Christopher Kent
The English voice of Frederick Cook: Alan J. Schwartz
The English voice of Kathleen Scott: Julie Berry
The English voice of Roald Amundsen: Ole Gjerstad
The French voice of Adrien de Gerlache: Bruno Piccolo
The English voice of Robert Falcon Scott: Andrew Digby
Titles: Jean-Laurent Ratel
Special thanks to:
Anne-Christine Amundsen Jacobsen
Johan Leon Amundsen
Charlie Cahill
Canadian Coast Guard
Gloria Corbould
Maurits Dolmans
Fram Museum, Oslo (Norway)
Captain Klaas Gaastra of the Dutch three-masted bark Europa
Bernard de Gerlache
Ken Jezek, Byrd Polar Research Center, Ohio State University, Columbus (Ohio)
Laura Kissel, Byrd Polar Research Center, Ohio State University, Columbus (Ohio)
Captain Lise Marchand, commanding officer of the Canadian research icebreaker Amundsen
Deanna Matthew and the family of Charlie Carpendale
Adam Shamash
Sifton Air, Haines Junction (Yukon)
Uranienborg Roald Amundsens Hjem, Svartskog (Norway)
Archival material and satellite imagery:
AKG-Images, Paris
Alfred-Wegener-Institut/Archiv für deutsche Polarforschung, Bremerhaven (Germany)
Art Resource Inc., New York
Bridgeman Images, New York
Brooklyn Public Library, New York
Byrd Polar Research Center, Ohio State University, Columbus (Ohio)
Canterbury Museum, Canterbury (New Zealand)
Digitized footage from Nanook of the North, The Wedding of Palo and Primitive Love, c/o Flicker Alley
European Space Agency, by permission, Paris (France)
Image of the Nobel Peace Prize medal, © ® The Nobel Foundation
Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa (Canada)
Library of Congress, Washington DC
McGill University Rare Books Department, Montreal (Quebec)
Carrie M. McLain Memorial Museum, Nome (Alaska)
Mariners’ Museum, Newport News (Virginia)
Museum of Cultural History, Oslo (Norway)
Museum of History & Industry, Seattle (Washington)
NASA, SDO, and the AIA, HMI and Science teams
The National Library of Australia, Canberra (Australia)
The National Library of New Zealand, Wellington (New Zealand)
The National Library of Norway, Oslo (Norway)
The New York Times, c/o PARS International
Paintings of the Gjoa, c/o Gordon Miller and Roger Morris
Portrait of James Lind by Sir George Chalmers, Copyright © 2014 J. W. Hepner 2009/Photo Theo Chalmers
Private collection/Follo Museum, Roald Amundsen`s House Uranienborg, Svartskog (Norway)
Provinciale Bibiotheek, Limburg (Belgium)
Seattle Times, Seattle (Washington)
Shutterstock Inc., New York
Wellcome Collection, London (United Kingdom)
Shot on location in Antarctica, on the Southern Ocean, in Alaska, on the Beaufort Sea, in the Yukon, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Quebec, Mexico, Scotland, England, Ireland, Belgium and Norway
This film is dedicated to Marie Frenette
© Evidentia Films Inc. 2020