Shot at her studio-camp in Idaho, during a time of personal and financial hardships, White Water comes at the end of Canadian-born Nell Shipman’s career as a leading actress and independent producer, screenwriter, editor, and co-director. Like many of Shipman’s films, this reverent and earnest story (the third in her Little Dramas of the Big Places series) is set in the great outdoors; here, Shipman’s character, Dreena, surrounds herself with animals and wildlife and proselytises on the wonders and holiness of the natural world. When two orphaned brothers show up at a nearby logging camp, Dreena comes to their rescue, later literally saving the weak younger boy – with an assist from her dog (and, eventually, the cowardly older brother) – from the churning rapids that give the film its title. By 1925, Shipman’s company was bankrupt and she was living in New York (her animals were at the San Diego Zoo), making White Water one of her final cinematic odes to the beauties and dangers of “God’s Country”.

Kate Saccone