We reached out to our festival filmmakers to ask them five questions about the experience of making their films.
What inspired this story? Producer Catherine Brookes: Conservation at the community level allows people and wildlife to thrive alongside one another and is vital in the protection of our planet. I wanted to tell a story that perfectly exemplified the positive impacts that such initiatives can create. When I first learnt about the work of this amazing all-female sea turtle conservation team, I knew their story had to be shared. The results of their efforts have not come easy and their journey to running a successful sea turtle hatchery is compelling, inspirational and a story that I hoped would resonate with a wide audience. What impact do you hope this film will have? CB: As awareness rises about the devastating impacts that ocean plastics and climate change are having on our marine species, a lesser-known threat is often overlooked. This film aims to shed light on the vast-scale issue that is the poaching of sea turtle eggs, as well as giving recognition to an incredibly dedicated team of conservationists. This community has found a successful formula that is benefitting both their people and their wildlife. I hope this film can inspire more charities and NGOs to replicate this model worldwide. I also hope to encourage and empower more women to break stereotypes and pursue their passions. This film has given Barra de Santiago's women a chance to speak out about their experiences and shed light on the importance of women in science and conservation. What drove you as a filmmaker to focus on our oceans and marine life? CB: This is a critical time for preserving our oceans and marine life. The world's oceans and the delicately balanced ecosystems within them are essential to life on earth. The rate at which they are being depleted and polluted is alarming. Raising awareness about the threats facing our marine environment is an important step in its protection, and storytelling through the medium of film is a powerful tool for spreading conservation messages. As a biologist who has long been captivated by the ocean and its wildlife, I was excited to create something that could inspire a deeper interest in marine conservation in others.
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We reached out to our festival filmmakers to ask them five questions about the experience of making their films.
The Edge Trailer from Jackson Wild on Vimeo. What inspired this story? Director and Producer Carlos Toro: I became inspired by Joe Romeiro's story of going from someone who was very interested in marine wildlife, specifically sharks and to what extent that passion eventually manifested itself in his life. This is also a story of how our passions tend to weave themselves into our lives. The Edge is a story of what it looks like to allow your passions to drive you to the cusp of what is being done in a given field. The narrative is further pushed by the dark, elusive nature of the footage and ultimately communicates a message of our role in this world and how we can co-habitat this space, respectfully. Describe some of the challenges faced while making this film? CT: The main challenge of this film was to focus on a very narrow sliver of a particular style of footage; night time, dark footage and make that interesting enough to tie in our narrative objective into that. Another, much more practical consideration was having to get the shots completed in a such a short time frame. How do you approach science storytelling? CT: Our approach at Steer Films is to reexamine information or subject matter that is taken for granted and apply our lens to it and show its true, remarkable nature. What impact do you hope this film will have? CT: Ideally, the film will cause people to reflect and reconsider what our role is as stewards of this planet. Specifically, for shark enthusiasts we hope it's a subject matter that we have wrapped in enough interesting footage for it to be appreciated by a wider audience. Were there any surprising or meaningful moments/experiences you want to share? CT: The most meaningful moments appeared in hindsight. How we connected with the protagonist, Joe Romeiro. The way the shoot came together in a such natural, but powerful way and ultimately how well the piece has been received. Anything else you would like people to know? CT: We believe that deep scientific insights need to be translated into a visceral, emotional experience. We all learn more about ourselves by what's being revealed every day by new discoveries and the work being done in many exciting fields. Our goal is to work with organizations and people who are deeply passionate about their respective field of study and be able to bring their stories to the masses. What next? CT: Our team at Steer Films has recently successfully completed production on two recent TV programs for Discovery and National Geographic. We are currently working on a TV project that we were able to spearhead from it's inception and look forward to seeing it debut next year on Discovery channel. We're also looking forward to collaborating with researchers, scientists and other passionate actors in the very near future. Five Questions for Filmmakers: The Deepest Dive in Antartica Reveals a Sea Floor Teeming with Life3/14/2019
We reached out to our festival filmmakers to ask them five questions about the experience of making their films.
What inspired this story? Field Producer Erika Jarvis: The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts is a marine national monument designated in 2016, the only one in the Atlantic Ocean. This area has been known to fishermen, marine biologists, and MA seafarers for decades as a particularly abundant part of the world, due in part to its enormous underwater canyons and tall underwater mountains (which become aggregation points for life in the ocean). However, on April 26, 2017, an Executive Order was signed that threatens to carve up or abolish dozens of National Monuments across the nation, and this area was one of them. As part of a new partnership between OceanX and Bloomberg Philanthropies, we wanted to make sure that people knew not just about the beauty of the corals and marine life in this area, but about its importance for biodiversity and scientific research. Were there any surprising or meaningful experiences you want to share? EJ: Meaningful was experiencing what they mean by “biodiversity hotspot” in person. It was not uncommon to see whales and dolphins on a near-daily basis, as well as large predatory fish like tuna. As for the scientists, they got to see things that are incredibly rare and valuable to experience in person, since access to manned submersibles like those aboard OceanX’s Alucia is still relatively uncommon. In this case, they toured mountainous walls of corals, some which are hundreds of years old. What impact do you hope this film will have? EJ: The film was recently screened at a Congressional Briefing in Washington on the importance of national monuments. Dr. Tim Shank, of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, was the chief scientist on the mission, and he explained it beautifully on the day: “There are key places in our ocean that allow magnificent leaps in our understanding of the oceans, and it’s important to communicate this to public and policy-makers.” From a general audience perspective, it is good to remind people that coral reefs are not these distant, vacation-destination lifeforms, but that they are growing and thriving within striking distance of the most heavily populated parts of our nation, and that they are part of our shared natural heritage. Describe some of the challenges faced while making this film. EJ: We embarked on the mission just as Hurricane Florence began forming in the Atlantic. It was a series of darted trips out to the open ocean for dives, then back behind the safety of the Cape Cod peninsula to wait out the huge swell. Luckily, our captain and crew are extraordinarily safety oriented, so we were never at risk, but it did limit the number of exploratory dives we could make.
We reached out to our festival filmmakers to ask them five questions about the experience of making their films.
SHARK GIRL Trailer from Jackson Wild on Vimeo. What inspired this story? Producer, Director and Writer Gisela Kaufmann: We’ve been producing underwater documentaries for over 15 years and had just completed a one-hour special on manta rays, when we saw a passionate Facebook post from a young Australian shark campaigner, Madison Stewart, who was pleading to save sharks in the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). We were surprised to learn about the legal shark fisheries in the GBR and after meeting Madison in person, we were very impressed by her passion, knowledge and foresight. There are so many, often sensationalized shark films out there, we never thought we would enter these murky waters. Yet meeting Madison changed all this. Here was a remarkable young person: instantly engaging, free-spirited yet fully focused, and deadly serious about her life’s mission to save her ‘family’, as she calls sharks. With Madison we could tell an entirely different story, a very personal one that would be thought provoking and have an impact on people who might not care about these animals and their cruel fate. What impact do you hope this film will have? GK: After the release of the film Australia’s biggest seller of fresh shark meat, Woolworths, was inundated with emails and Facebook messages and has since stopped its sale. However the company has not (yet) released an official statement confirming they will stop selling fresh shark meat for good. Through continued campaigning Madison has managed to have at least two smaller Australian supermarket chains withdraw shark meat from sale and confirm they will not bring it back. For the first time, Australian health authorities have agreed to meet with Madison to discuss the potential danger of shark meat for human consumption. We hope that our film will continue to help change awareness for the plight of our oceans and the protection we need to grant its apex predators, sharks, which are so tremendously misunderstood and misrepresented. Describe some of the challenges faced while making this film. GK: Environmental films often touch on political issues and with that a whole range of challenges arises. Our key challenge throughout the film was getting people to participate who are part of the legal shark trade in Australia - fishermen, middlemen, wholesalers, fish traders/shops, fishery departments, even health departments - all of them declined or ignored our invitation to participate, repeatedly, even though this program was for Australia's public broadcaster. We often had to resort to 'undercover' filming e.g. in fish shops and markets, and in the end were lucky to find one shark fishermen willing talk to us, but only because we tracked him down on location and the personal contact made it possible. Surprisingly, the majority of scientists who work on shark populations in the GBR also declined our invitation to participate, even though we do have a long-standing and very positive track record with the science community (e.g. previous film PROJECT MANTA received Australia's annual award for Best Science Journalism). Anything 'shark' is a hot topic in Australia, most of the research is funded by the Government (with dwindling funds and lots of job cuts) and it seemed no one wanted to be involved in a film that is in a way against current Government politics (which is pro shark fishing & culling). With a huge amount of effort we managed to get the experts involved, but often they gave us 'political statements' rather than factual ones. Dealing with a political 'hot topic', and a global supermarket chain for that matter, also meant we had to be super diligent with our fact-checks and stay even more on the conservative side than usual. In fact 2 months after delivery of the program, we had to recall it because one broadcaster felt, due to a new development we needed to change one script line; according to our lawyers the line was still fine but probably not as water-tight as initially, yet it was feared that the involved concern could put an injunction on the film. It's the first time in 25 years that we ever had to recall a delivered film, from 3 continents, but there was no choice. Thankfully everything was revised within a few weeks. It was a strong reminder that one needs to have a very healthy legal budget when venturing out into environmental or conservation films. All up it's the most we've ever spent on legal fees. What drove you as a filmmaker to focus on our oceans and marine life? GK: Our oceans are the bases for all live on earth and we’ve always been passionate about this wondrous, fascinating and still little explored yet threatened blue world. We’re very committed to tell our oceans’ stories and plight, hoping to make at least a small difference for their future and protection.
We reached out to our festival filmmakers to ask them five questions about the experience of making their films.
Shark: Episode 1 Trailer from Jackson Wild on Vimeo. What inspired this story? Producer and Director Steve Greenwood: The image of sharks in the media is very negative, yet they are fascinating surprising creatures. So many documentaries focus only one a tiny number of species and I wanted to show the global audience the incredible variety of species and adaptations. Later films in the series showed their adaptations to different life histories and their vulnerability to exploitation. What impact do you hope this film will have? SG: The film has been shown in many countries around the world. I hope it will inspire a new generation of young people to become shark scientists and the wider public to understand that these are remarkable and fascinating features. I also hope it will help to change attitudes amongst those who consume or catch shark. Describe some of the challenges faced while making this film. SG: The team had to film under the arctic ice to find the Greenland shark. It involved cutting a hole in the ice that was over 12 feet thick and the filming team to drop into water that was minus 1 degree centigrade. Diving with only a small exit hole in these conditions requires intricate planning and a lot of skill and bravery.
We reached out to our festival filmmakers to ask them five questions about the experience of making their films.
What inspired this story?
Directors Sharif Mirshak and Noé Sardet: Our series Plankton Chronicles had recently been published online. Christian Sardet and Parafilms had produced 13 short episodes, exploring the beauty of marine life adrift in currents. Meeting Tierney Thys then kickstarted a series of creative collaborations. Deemed “first TED talk ever given by a fish”, Secret Life of Plankton actually launched the TED-Ed platform in 2012. Our team is still united by love and fascination for the underwater world. Describe some of the challenges faced while making this film. SM and NS: Filming predation and odd behaviors in macro is very challenging. Plankton is collected in the ocean with fine-meshed nets and usually filmed in a lab, using petri dishes and aquariums. Some shots were obtained on board the Tara Oceans expedition, but most came from the marine station in Villefranche-sur-Mer in southern France. It’s important to handle plankton carefully and control the environment to ensure their survival. Depth-of-field is incredibly shallow and it can take hours to obtain footage. Our actors give us a hard time! Capturing this amount of plankton images requires luck and patience. What impact do you hope this film will have? SM and NS: Sharing the beauty of marine life can inspire people to protect the ocean. We hope viewers marvel at the wonders of the sea and learn about plankton’s importance for life on Earth. A major source of oxygen and petroleum, plankton captures CO2, regulates our climate and shapes our future. Secret Life of Plankton was our first short in a series called Stories from the Sea, all created with Tierney Thys. After a dead fish, we continued to use unusual narrators (sea urchin larva and toy seahorse) to produce Urchin Odyssey and The Plastic Vagabond. By combining art and science, these educational films will hopefully raise ocean levels of awareness.
We reached out to our festival filmmakers to ask them five questions about the experience of making their films.
Radio Free Orca from Jackson Wild on Vimeo. What inspired this story? Director Andrew Lampard: This project arose from a conversation I had with my colleague Jon O’Beirne. Twenty years ago, when Jon was in college, he wrote to Dr. Paul Spong via fax about serving as a summer intern at OrcaLab. Jon had read about Dr. Spong’s work studying orcas in the wild on Hanson Island, BC, through a complex network of underwater audio devices called hydrophones and video cameras and was inspired to help. Unfortunately, the position was unpaid and the opportunity was too cost-prohibitive for Jon to travel to Hanson Island at the time. When Jon told me his story and how fascinated he was with orcas and their underwater society, it triggered my own memories of growing up on Vancouver Island and learning about these majestic mammals that were my neighbors at sea. I began researching Dr. Spong and discovered that he was now live-broadcasting over the internet the orcas’ calls from his hydrophone network. It was clear Dr. Spong’s novel approach to create empathy for the orcas around the world, combined with his idyllic remote outpost, made for a terrific story. Were there any surprising or meaningful experiences you want to share? Jon and I filmed the story over two days in the summer of 2017. During production, we filmed several pods of whales, some up close from an observatory near Hanson Island, and learned about their various dialects and societal groupings. I was astonished to learn that orcas are the most bonded creatures on the planet in that they stay with their families for their entire lives. What impact do you hope this film will have? By the time we left, Jon and I viewed the orcas as being akin to people, with names, histories, and familial bonds. While a complete documentary could be made about Dr. Spong’s work on Hanson Island, and the incredible group of volunteers who work alongside him, my hope is our story will inspire in our viewers the same sort of empathy we developed at OrcaLab. Describe some of the challenges faced while making this film. AL: As with any project related to documenting the habits of wild mammals, our biggest challenge was getting enough useable orca footage within our two-day time frame at OrcaLab. It's impossible to predict where the orcas will go and when. In addition, capturing sufficient close-up footage was challenging as we did not want to get too close and disrupt the pods. We relied heavily upon the OrcaLab's archive footage library, particularly the incredible work by Megan Hockin-Bennett, a videographer who has spent several summers documenting the pods that visit the waters near OrcaLab. What drove you as a filmmaker to focus on our oceans and marine life? AL: I grew up on Vancouver Island; the orca pods there were my neighbors. In recent years, we've seen mounting, controversy-free evidence that whale watching tours, industrial shipping routes, warming waters and dying ocean ecosystems are taking huge tolls on the vulnerable Orcas. Their population numbers are dropping, and their newborns are dying. At the same time, many people still haven't grasped how dire the situation is. Storytelling might be a way to bring more empathy to the plight of the orcas.
We reached out to our festival filmmakers to ask them five questions about the experience of making their films.
Racing Extinction Trailer from Jackson Wild on Vimeo. What impact do you hope this film will have? Director Louie Psihoyos: My wish is that the film will inspire legions of people to take action so we could avert a disaster like the Earth hasn’t had for eons. We also wanted legislation that would begin to mitigate some of the stresses on endangered species. It seems to be working. The film was seen by 36 million people in 220 countries and territories on the first day it aired. The activism around the film has helped inspire legislation that prevents some of the most endangered species from entering Western U.S. ports. The film also led to the closing down of 6 illegal shark processing plants in China that were harvesting and trafficking endangered sharks. What drove you as a filmmaker to focus on our oceans and marine life? LP: I started the Oceanic Preservation Society with a group of friends who love to dive with the idea that we would create films to inspire people to help save the oceans. We’ve been witnessing the reefs quickly degrading over the last few decades but never really put it together that what we were witnessing was the beginning of a mass extinction event. I’ve photographed several stories on Mesozoic extinction events for magazines like National Geographic, Time and Smithsonian. When I met the provost of The American Museum of Natural History in New York he me told that we at the beginning of a human caused mass extinction event right now called the Anthropocene and that was why we were losing the reefs. The reefs he said were one of the many canaries in the coal mine for a larger catastrophe that is happening right now. I thought that there was no more important issue in the world I could be doing than to alert people to the fact that this was happening. But we didn't want to just create awareness - we wanted to create action. Describe some of the challenges faced while making this film. LP: The whole crew faced danger as shark oil buyers in China. They put themselves in harm’s way time and time again throughout the film but everyone knew the risk. But all these efforts would be pretty meaningless if nobody saw the film or took action. We knew the film wouldn’t be enough to draw attention to the subject so we spent 4-years trying to get permission to light up the Empire State Building with endangered species, an event that we hoped could end the film. In the end that event drew 939,000,000 media views in less than a week and became top trending story on Facebook and Twitter for 4 days worldwide. We thought we couldn’t get any more attention to the subject than that and then Pope called. Pope Francis is named after St. Francis, the Patron Saint of animals and he asked us to light up the Vatican with endangered species during COP 21 to remind world leaders more was at stake with climate change than humans. That event drew 4.4 billion media views and an estimated 225,000 people saw the event live in St. Peter’s Square.
We reached out to our festival filmmakers to ask them five questions about the experience of making their films.
What inspired this story?
Field Director Mark Dalio: This video was part of the OurBlue Planet digital campaign that we at OceanX coproduced with BBC Earth, which brings to life the incredible stories, videos and photography from the unbelievable world of the blue planet and the scientists, researchers, crew and filmmakers who explore it every day. For Blue Planet II, we took a BBC team where no one had gone before: 1,000 meters beneath Antarctica’s ocean. This was unexplored territory that plays a central role in our planet’s life cycle. Called “the lungs of the deep,” it is the source of oxygen-rich waters that bring life to deep oceans all over the world yet there have never been manned submersible dives into these depths before. At 1,000 meters down, despite the extreme cold, we found a sea floor literally crawling with life and were able to study an ecosystem central to the planet’s lifecycle, producing oxygen-rich waters that flow throughout the world. Were there any surprising or meaningful experiences you want to share? MD: One of the things that surprised us was just the amount of life that was at the bottom. With such nutrient dense water we were able to find a much more vibrant sea bottom than what one might think in regards to Antarctica. One of the charismatic creatures we encountered was the Antarctic sunstar which we nicknamed the Death Star. It was absolutely massive with 50 arms that were raised into the air to catch krill as they passed by. It was a strange and wonderful world that was like taking a page from a Dr. Seuss book. What impact do you hope this film will have? MD: I hope to bring a much needed voice to the oceans in order to help galvanize the public’s interest in what lies below the surface by exciting, informing and inspiring audiences. With this film I hope to be able to open people's eyes that there is still so much more to be understood and explored in our oceans and that we have only scratched the surface. I think by combining charismatic science stories with the power of media it has the ability to proliferate, create conversation, inspire change and truly shift our culture. We have seen how media can shape the way people think, what they think about, and how they act which is why the work we do with OceanX is to help harness that transformative power in our efforts every day. I believe by invoking a human connection to the oceans, we can build a global community deeply engaged with understanding, enjoying and protecting them and I hope that this film will play a part in that. Describe some of the challenges faced while making this film. MD: There are definitely technical challenges that come into play - when we were in Antarctica, we had to make sure camera batteries didn't freeze and that our subs could handle the extreme cold. We’ve never had the submersibles in water that was so cold, and on one of our first dives, the camera teams and producers saw some condensation that was worrying—they didn’t know if it was a leak or if it was truly just condensation. Orla Doherty, one of the producers, was asked to taste it to see if it was salt water—then they’d know that it was a leak. She tasted it, and there was a leak. Luckily, they were able to bring the subs back up, check some of the valves, and fix the problem. But it was scary at the time. It was something we absolutely didn’t expect, given that we’d never filmed in super-cold water before. What drove you as a filmmaker to focus on our oceans and marine life? MD: Growing up near the coastline in CT, I developed a deep connection with the water. After studying film and working with National Geographic in L.A., I saw the unique need for and value in merging my two passions of filmmaking and ocean exploration, and wanted to create a media production company with the singular focus of exploring and broadcasting the story of our oceans for the world to consume. I founded OceanX Media with the mission to educate, inspire, excite and connect the world to the ocean through captivating media content and storytelling. Many people think that we know everything there is to know about the oceans, but in reality only about 5% of the oceans have been explored and documented. At OceanX, we are trying to bring a much needed voice to the oceans in order to help galvanize the public’s interest in what lies below the surface by exciting, informing and inspiring audiences utilizing captivating stories around the scientists that we work with.
We reached out to our festival filmmakers to ask them five questions about the experience of making their films.
My Octopus Teacher Trailer from Jackson Wild on Vimeo.
What inspired this story?
Producer Craig Foster: I have been diving in the kelp forest everyday for almost a decade now. I started because I was going through a very difficult time, but it became this incredible source of energy and inspiration. After almost 5 years I met a very unusual young octopus. I went back to visit her everyday for months and eventually the animal trusted me and allowed me to enter her secret world. I began to see her as my teacher because through her I learned to track underwater and discovered many animal behaviours and even species that were new to science. She also taught me about her many prey and predators and the inner life of the Great African Seaforest. I witnessed most of her life and managed to capture some of it on camera. For a time, she was the major focus of my life - I fell in love with her. I still regard that year with her as the greatest privilege of my life. When Pippa and I started going through the footage we realised we had something very special: a very personal, emotional story about an unusual animal/human relationship, but also the entire life story of an individual marine creature in the wild. Were there any surprising or meaningful experiences you want to share? CF: Any time you go into nature without a specific agenda, you find something meaningful and surprising. I spent hours and hours in the water with the octopus, but at the time I never had any intention of making a film, so everything I saw and learnt was a surprise and my understanding of the kelp forest expanded enormously because of that. At first I saw the Seaforest as thousands of separate creatures surviving and thriving. But over time, and especially when I was with her, I started to sense the entire Seaforest as a single living entity - a giant ecological intelligence. When you start to feel that and you start to feel that you are part of it, your relationship to the natural world changes on a physical and emotional level. I was always aware that we are damaging the ocean, but now it feels much more personal. By hurting nature we are hurting ourselves.
What impact do you hope this film will have?
Director Pippa Ehrlich: As filmmakers, we see ourselves as storytellers first, but when you spend thousands of hours in an environment and you start to fall in love with it, you reach a point where just sharing stories is not enough. I hope this film impacts viewers on two levels: first I hope it inspires them to explore the natural world in their own way. We are incredibly fortunate to have a seaforest on our doorstep, but I believe that it's possible to have a meaningful relationship with nature no matter where you are in the world, whether it’s with the insects in your garden, or a plant that you nurture in your apartment. Craig spent so much time with the Octopus that he got a glimpse of how she experienced life. It’s hard to articulate but there is something deeply fulfilling and reassuring about imagining the world through another species’s eyes. It expands your perspective. Secondly, we hope that our film has a tangible impact on ocean conservation and would like to be part of the global campaign to protect 30% of our oceans by 30/30. We know that marine protected areas are not a silver bullet, but there are still so many incredible wild places on our planet, if we can at least get the right legislation in place, they will become our ecological savings accounts for the future. On a more local scale, we are working towards having the kelp forest or “The Great African Seaforest” declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Describe some of the challenges faced.
PE: I have spent much of my career as a journalist, telling other people’s stories. In order to make this film, I needed to understand Craig’s experiences directly. Before we even started developing the script, I spent 6 months diving everyday to adapt my body to the cold and get confident enough to swim in big swell - not to mention that fact that this is one of the sharkiest bays on the planet. I also spent hours watching all of the different animals in the kelp forest and learning where to find them and how to approach them. One of the biggest challenges was learning how to find an octopus and it took months before I could recognise their tracks - even with Craig’s guidance. Those were very enjoyable challenges to overcome. The more difficult challenge was that in the beginning, this project was entirely self-funded. We knew we had an amazing story, but we also knew it would take a long time to get the cut right. We were taking a big risk and weren’t sure if we would ever be able to finish it. Fortunately, we had the support of Off the Fence. They really believed in the project and without them, we could never have got it to this point.
What drove you as a filmmaker?
CF: I have made a lot of films, but I have never told my own story before. There is something very powerful but also scary about doing that. My mother dived on the day I was born and I was put in the Atlantic Ocean when I was two days old. I started skin diving at 3, so my relationship with the Seaforest is one of the most precious things in my life. She has become my underwater home and I can’t imagine life without her. I wanted to share my experience with the Octopus and make a beautiful film, but more than that I wanted to honour this incredible environment because it has given me so much. My greatest wish is that this film can somehow inspire people to protect the Seaforest and the ocean that feeds it. |
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