James Henry White was a Canadian film film pioneer, who worked as a director, producer, and cinematographer. He also appeared as an actor in several films. He was employed by the Edison Manufacturing Company as Production Head from 1896 to 1902, and directed over 500 short films, both fictional and documentary often with no functional story or script, just scenes or vignettes. White proved prolific and tried to be lyrical in some of his short films, for example Return of a Lifeboat (1897) and A Storm at Sea (1900) the latter of which was shot on a passenger ship with the camera catching some of the glimmer from the sun.