Sonja - The White Swan
by Karen Pecota

The internationally acclaimed filmmaker Anne Sewitsky tells the true story of the famed Norwegian, Sonja Henie, in the feature film Sonja - The White Swan. Henie was an accomplished Norwegian figure skater, who goes to Hollywood to become a movie star in 1936. Sewitsky's expertise in bringing Henie's story to life is made possible with her exceptional cast and crew. The collaboration of Sewitsky's team developed one of the most compelling and heartbreaking stories ever told of the price paid for fame.

Sonja Henie was a unique history maker as an eleven-year-old in 1924. Henie has more wins than any figure skater in history with three Olympic golds (1928, 1932 & 1936), ten World Championships (1927 - 1936) and six European Championships in a row. Henie turned professional in 1936. From 1937 to 1956 she performed in elaborate ice shows in the United States and Europe; and, at the time, was the world's highest paid movie star with her films in One in a Million (1936), Thin Ice (1937) and Sun Valley Serenade (1941). Her film career ended in the late 40s. In 1961, she and her third husband, shipowner Niels Onstad, together set-up a foundation for the arts in order to open a modern art museum. In 1968, the Henie-Onstad Art Center opened one year before her untimely death on a flight from Paris to Oslo.

Synopsis:

The beautifully brilliant, audacious and stubbornly ambitious, Norwegian Sonja Henie makes a way for herself to become a Hollywood movie star on the laurels of a culmination from her prize-winning figure skating championships from 1924 to 1936.

Her first film, One in a Million is a 1936, box-office hit and her new career begins to sore. The entertainment darling has it all: beauty, personality, money, film contracts, fabulous ice shows with astonishing choreography, glamour, parties, lovers, family, and friends. A future of success seems to be what she is made for until the entertainment culture changes. Sonja gets older, has a fall-out with family members, takes her show Holiday on Ice to Rio de Janeiro against the advice of her financiers and hits rock bottom. The press have a field-day with Sonja's demise.  Her next steps give an unlikely narrative at the point when no one cares nor is interested in watching.