True South

Screening at Luna on SX & the Windsor:
Thurs, March 5
Sat, March 7
Sun, March 8

TRUE SOUTH commemorates 80 years of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race and was filmed 25 years after its darkest chapter in 1998, when six sailors lost their lives. Few sporting events hold the cultural weight of the Sydney to Hobart. Every Boxing Day, as the Cricket Test breaks for lunch, millions of Australians turn their attention to the start of the Great Race. For days, the nation follows the fleet into one of the world’s most treacherous bodies of water — Bass Strait — where shifting weather systems can turn elite competition into a fight for survival.

At its heart, TRUE SOUTH is not a sailing film — it is a deeply human story of family, grief, endurance and friendship, told through the lived experience of the Winning and Dean families. The film centres on lifelong friends Herman Winning, Nathan and Peter Dean, whose bond was forged long before the sea would test it. The 1998 race changed everything. A violent East Coast Low struck the fleet, generating 90-foot seas and claiming six lives — including John Dean, father to Nathan and Peter, and a deeply loved figure across both families. Twenty-five years later, Herman, Nathan and Peter returned to the race together — an act of extraordinary bravery that becomes the emotional spine of the film.

TRUE SOUTH is created and produced by Will Alexander, founder of Heckler, who has been close friends with the Winning and Dean families since childhood. Will was entrusted to tell this deeply personal story because of that lifelong bond — a trust that defines the film’s emotional authenticity. The film is narrated by Sigrid Thornton AO.