Australian
Screen

A Mountain Goes to Sea (also known as Shipbuilders) was the third of four wartime documentaries made by the Chauvels for the DOI that described the important contributions of Australian workers to the war effort. During the Second World War, the shipbuilding yard and engineering works at Whyalla (where the film was shot) were thriving with an expanding workforce to meet the needs of the war effort. Like their other films for the DOI, A Mountain Goes to Sea was intended as a morale booster for the workers who built the equipment and machinery of war.

Unfortunately, only the 35mm original picture negative survives. The sound negative has been lost so the print is mute. Nevertheless, it is still possible to get a sense of the film from its images and on-screen text. An emotive title announces that 'we are gaining strength greater than we had ever dreamed and are tapping great resources … we have found that, if we will, we can do gigantic things’. George Heath’s cinematography frequently frames the shipyard workers from low angles, casting them as commanding figures amongst the wooden scaffolding and great steel monolith they are building. A Christian pastor is positioned against a vast expanse of sky as he blesses the finished ship before it is launched to sea. We cannot hear his sermon, but the closing on-screen text reads, 'we have placed our feet in the stirrups of resolution, and our hands up on the reins of confidence – in God – and we are marching forward’.