“One Winter Story” is a one-hour documentary about one ordinary woman who decided to pursue some extraordinary goals. Although Sarah Gerhardt is a surfing pioneer who made history by being the first woman to surf Maverick’s, one of the world's largest waves, Sarah’s dramatic journey from poverty and despair to accomplishment and peace have gone unnoticed. “One Winter Story” is not just another surf film. Rather, the documentary takes viewers on Sarah's journey to overcome unfathomable difficulties in her life through faith, dedication and sheer force of will in a beautiful montage of film, voice, memory and emotion.

The creation of the film has been equally extraordinary. Frank Films is a production company that consists of two passionate women filmmakers/surfers: Sally Lundburg and Elizabeth Pepin. We began production on “One Winter Story” nearly five years ago, in the winter of 2001.

At the time, only one other documentary about a woman surfer had been released, and there were no surf films that were filmed, produced and edited entirely by women. Ironically, the documentary became our own "Maverick’s" as we were driven to great lengths to overcome filmmaking obstacles and challenges to pursue our own passion to complete the project.

Uninspired by many of the current documentaries which are all shot and edited with the same equipment, and tend to ignore the beauty of cinema and take no visual chances, we decided to shoot on 16mm and super 8 film, creating a unique look that celebrates the beauty of the film format, in all its many variations.“One Winter Story” gives a nod to the early days of the surf film genre when a filmmaker would simply film his favorite tropical locales on super 8 and 16mm and then rent an auditorium and narrate the footage as it played. On camera interviews were unheard of, and the simple majesty of the ocean footage took viewers on a journey for an hour. To set the mood for this unique spot, we decided to utilize a range of film stocks and formats, employ a variety of filming techniques including physical manipulation of the film, hand processing, and under and over exposure.