At 18,000 feet (5,400 m) above sea level and over the course of 40 days last spring, documentary filmmaker Dianne Whelan immersed herself in the challenging and captivating world of Base Camp at Mt. Everest. With spectacular footage of the Himalaya as a backdrop, 40 DAYS AT BASE CAMP is an intriguing and intimate portrayal of three climbing teams and their journey to the world's highest peak.
Dianne Whelan is an award-winning Canadian filmmaker and photographer residing in Vancouver, BC.
In April 2010, Whelan traveled to Nepal and Mount Everest Base Camp to direct and shoot her documentary film, 40 Days at Base Camp, a film shot on Mt. Everest. The film had its world premiere at the Vancouver International Film Festival and was the opening night film at the Banff Mountain Film Festival. She is the first woman to shoot a film on the world’s highest mountain. In April and May 2012 she will be doing an indie Canadian tour of the film from Victoria , BC, to St. Johns, Newfoundland.
The subject of her first book, This Vanishing Land, references her experience as an embedded media person on a historical Sovereignty Patrol in the Canadian High Arctic. Her recently released National Film Board documentary, This Land, is based on the same journey and has won several awards, including Best Short Documentary at both the Planet in Focus Film Festival in Toronto and the 2010 Leo Awards for BC film and television. A multi-media web project on her Arctic journey was released in June 2010 and recently won Best Small Multimedia Site at the Online Journalism Awards and was nominated for best art at SXSW. The site was recently nominated for a 2011 Gemini award for Best Original Program or Series Produced for Digital Media – Non-Fiction.