First Light

LAURA MERIANS GONÇALVES was selected by Sundance and White Claw to make a short film for White Claw’s activation at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Her concept focused on the story of a young cinematographer chasing her passion, waking up in the wee hours of the morning, climbing up a mountain through the snow to capture footage of the first peak of light.

Laura began developing the idea in LA with Farm League, and apparently, there aren’t many snowy mountains around LA. Through a mutual producer friend they reached out to us, and we went out on a limb to say that we can bring a crew with cinema cameras out into the backcountry without suffering the same fate as the Donner Party. Our years spent exploring the mountains on snowboards and splitboards paid off, and we lived to tell the tale. Through ups and downs, wind, snowstorms, a lack of restaurants 40 minutes into a mountain canyon, the strongest AC in the world towing a sled full of coffins and pelicans, a 4am wrap, and many laughs in between, we’re proud of what Laura was able to create and thrilled to have been a part of it. We celebrated by sipping White Claws at their lounge at Sundance where our faces plastered the walls around us.

In addition to the main 30 second spot, Laura also made an extended cut.