program 2009

7TH ANNUAL SAN FRANCISCO OCEAN FILM FESTIVAL: AWARD RECIPIENTS

Congratulations to all of the filmmakers who provided more than 50 awe-inspiring and thought-provoking masterpieces to the 2010 San Francisco Ocean Film Festival.
Award recipients were selected from the five film categories.

Best Coastal Culture Film: In Altro Mare (In Other Sea), Franco la Cecla

Best Environmental Film: Alexandra’s Echo, Helen Slinger

Best Adventure Film: In the Eye of the Whale, Kate Miller

Best Wildlife Film: Arctic Cliffhangers, Julia Szucs & Steve Smith

Best Conservation Film: The Cove, Louie Psihoyos

OFFICIAL TRAILER FOR THE 2010 FESTIVAL

Catch the official 2010 Festival trailer, created by Josh Cassidy.

FILM PROGRAM 2010

Download the 2010 San Francisco Ocean Film Festival program

*Filmmaker scheduled to participate in Q&A

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

7:00 pm – Program 1

Sylvia Earle: A Profile

(USA), Amy Miller and Joan Johnson, 11 mins

“Sturgeon General” Sylvia Earle has been and still is scientist, explorer, author, innovator, and spokesperson par excellence on the health and importance of the oceans. She has been an active participant in underwater research from the invention of scuba to the latest deep-diving manned submersibles. —KH

The End of the Line

(UK), Rupert Murray, 26 mins

Wild fish, once thought to be an inexhaustible resource, have been depleted. Each year, longliners put out enough line to encircle the globe 550 times. Some scientists estimate that 90 percent of all large fish have disappeared—into our mouths. In 1992, cod, perhaps the most popular edible fish in the northern latitudes, vanished from the western Atlantic and have not yet recovered. Today, many more fish stocks are in precipitous decline. —KH

Dieci Chili di Mare (Seaside Out)

(Italy), Francesco Uboldi, 20 mins

Giampiero Levratto has been fishing in the Gulf of Genoa since he was a child. As he sets off in his small boat, cruise liners and cargo ships loom behind him, signs of the change that threatens the life and sea he loves. Though we are small and the ocean is immense, he knows that “men can destroy anything.” Capito? —SH

To Save the Whale

(UK), Gavin Newman, 50 mins

Despite a 1982 international ban on commercial whaling, Japan uses a loophole to slaughter whales. Condemned by the scientific community and an outraged public, Japan’s pursues its “scientific” whaling while Greenpeace activists defend the whales by placing themselves between the harpoons and the animals. Emmy Award-winning cinematographer Gavin Newman follows Greenpeace crews as they attempt to foil the whalers among Antarctic icebergs. —MJS

Thursday, February 4, 2010

7:00 pm – Program 2

Symbiosis Mashup – Ocean for Life

(USA), Jeremy Polk & Lauren Demko, 3 mins

Teens from the Near East and North America created this short film for a science/arts project in California. Despite cultural differences, they discover—and demonstrate—that “laughter is the shortest distance between two strangers.” Marine metaphors bring their point home and clever cinematography bears it out. —MJS

Journey to an Undersea Rainforest

(USA), Roger Uzun, 6 mins

Just off the southern California coast from some of the world’s busiest ports, a swaying forest of the world’s largest kelp thrives, invisible to us land dwellers. At some point in their lifetimes, nearly 800 species of invertebrates, fish, and marine mammals seek shelter and sustenance amid its 100-foot stalks. —SH

The Cove

(USA), Louie Psihoyos*, 92 mins

In this multi-award-winning film, dolphin activist Ric O’Barry launches a covert commando operation to unmask a Japanese fishing village’s dirty little secret: the capture of thousands of dolphins annually for theme parks. Those not “good enough” are slaughtered to fill school lunchboxes with toxin-tainted meat. Riveting and sometimes disturbing, yet bracing and uplifting. —MJS

Following the Festival program, join Louie Psihoyos and Ric O’Barry from “The Cove” for additional film discussion and DVD signing at the Wipeout Bar and Grill on PIER 39.

Friday, February 5, 2010

1:00 pm – Program 3

Physics of Sailing

(USA), Josh Rosen & Joan Johnson, 10 mins

A sail works like a vertical airplane wing: Just as the aerofoil in a plane provides lift, so the sail, by creating differing pressures on either side, enables the boat to glide almost directly into the wind. That’s the quick version. —KH

Herring Gut Learning Center

(USA), Morgan Kirkham*, 12 mins

“Taking care of oysters isn’t as easy as taking care of a pet gold fish.” That’s just one thing students learn at the coastal Maine oyster hatchery that they run and that is also their school. Unhappy in conventional classrooms, the center’s students blossom by putting sit-down learning into stand-up practice. It’s no pet gold fish, but many students end up actually enjoying school. —SH

Shaping a Life

(USA), Denise Galvao*, 24 mins

Gary Linden still surfs big waves at age 55, on a long ride he began 40 years ago. A famous board shaper, a craft he started to learn at 17, he rides all of the boards he makes. His life has had its ups and downs, but surfing has enabled him not just to handle them all, but to still “take fun over money.” —SH

In Altro Mare (In Other Sea)

(Italy), Franco la Cecla, 56 mins

Robert Kennedy said that “GDP measures everything that is important, except how to live,” but the Sicilian fishermen of Gloucester, Mass, always knew that. ‘Merica was the place to work hard and make money, but when fishing quotas were introduced, many of the fishers, rich and poor, knew it was time to go home—to Terrasini. —KH

4:00 pm – Program 4

In the Eye of the Whale

(USA), Kate Miller*, 20 mins (Q&A Participant: Bryant Austin)

Working less than six feet from his subject, Bryant Austin does “sort of a dance with a 50-ton animal” to get the hundreds of high-resolution images needed for his extraordinary life-size prints of whales. As we see in this marvelous film, displaying his images to people in whaling nations––Norway and Japan, so far––gives him hope that they will join him in protecting the leviathans that are his graceful partners. —SH

The Comfort of Cold

(USA), Sara Newens*, 4 mins (Q&A Participant: Joe Illick)

Even among the hardy community of San Francisco Bay swimmers, 75-year-old Joe Illick is exceptional. He swims twice a day throughout the winter and is often in the running for endurance awards. When he isn’t swimming, he’s carving, painting, and writing poetry. —KH

Rowing the Atlantic

(USA), J.B. Benna*, 25 mins

Ocean adventurer Roz Savage undertakes a 3,000-mile trans-Atlantic row—solo—that becomes a trial by sea and the challenge of a lifetime. Towering waves, heaving swells, and a pestilence of blisters are capped only by a cascade of equipment failure, including all satellite communications. Meanwhile, a camera records those harrowing and inspiring moments. —MJS

Sounds of the Sea

(Germany), Volker Barth, 52 mins (Q&A Participant: Michael Stocker, Ocean Conservation Research)

Whales and dolphins are drowning in an acoustic soup of human-generated ocean noise. Especially insidious are vessels using submarine-detecting Low Frequency Active Sonar, to which experts ascribe death from lung hemorrhage and sub-lethal effects like disruption of feeding, breeding, nursing, acoustic communication, and other vital behaviors. —MJS

7:00 pm – Program 5 – SURFING

Surfbus

(USA), Sachi Cunningham*, 3 mins

Inner city kids in Southern California discover the Pacific with a little help from their friends. It’s the chance to leave behind their sometimes gang-oriented East L.A. neighborhoods and “get their game on” in a joyous lesson that surf can trump turf. Their journey to the coast is a matter of miles, but could signal the start of a voyage of a lifetime. —MJS

Bicycle Trip

(USA), Patrick Trefz*, 14 mins

The Santa Cruz mountains, city, and shore form the backdrop for this easygoing depiction of a young man’s (and his board’s) journey from mountains to sea. The cinematographer’s clever eye for geometric forms and feelings delivers a tapestry of artfully crafted visuals and sound. —MJS

Sea of Darkness

(USA), Michael Oblowitz*, 88 mins
Surfing can be addictive, sometimes dangerously so. This adventure story about the voyagers aboard the legendary surf charter Indies Trader tells of the beginnings of the multinational surf company Quiksilver, and of three surfers who were willing to do whatever it took to maintain their indulgent surfing lifestyle. All suffered the consequences. For one who disappeared into the jungle like Joseph Conrad’s character, Kurtz, the consequences proved fatal. —KH
Caution: adult language and situations

Saturday, February 6, 2010

10:00 am – Program 6 – SHARKS

In Awe of the Shark

(UK), Caroline Brett, 5 mins

Some love sharks, some are obsessed by them. All of the scientists and conservationists in this film, though, are dedicated to protecting them from human slaughter. We are not on the sharks’ menu, they say, but sharks certainly are on ours, especially their fins. Can we change our views of these apex predators in time to save them? —SH

The Great White Shark Song

(USA), Andy Brandy Casagrande IV*, 4 mins

This serenade for white sharks charmingly weaves the singer’s fascination with sharks with a conservation message. It applauds—and promises to karmically reward—good ocean stewardship. The white shark croons reassuringly, “I wouldn’t bite YOU!” (Wouldyou believe him?) —MJS

Save Our Sharks

(UK), Caroline Brett, 6 mins

Why should the happiest day of newlyweds’ lives mean a brutal and wasteful death for sharks? It does when shark fin soup, the “Dom Pérignon” of Chinese banquets, is on the menu. African children witness the disappearance of their parents’ dwindling local fishery, while Chinese youth ponder whether their generation will sit back and do nothing, or be the one to turn the tide on this slaughter. —MJS

Whale Shark Island / Isla Holbox

(USA), Kip Evans*, 9 mins

The waters around Isla Holbox off Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula teem with fish eggs and plankton, a feast for giant whale sharks—10-meter giants that gather by the hundreds from June through September. These super-sized but toothless filter feeders are the core of a local tourism industry, but over-development could threaten this delicate balance. Dr. Sylvia Earle narrates. —MJS

White Shark Cafe

(USA), Sean Aronson*, 20 mins

Great white sharks visit the waters around the Farallon Islands each fall to feed on the pinnipeds returning to nearby rookeries. Tagging research reveals that the sharks spend much of the rest of the year at the “White Shark Café” just north of Hawaii. —KH

Requiem

(USA), Bryce Groark, 40 mins

No matter how you look at them––and this film looks at them from many angles––sharks are undeniably an apex predator. But, so are we, and some say we kill three sharks every second. We can’t effectively police the oceans to end this slaughter, but we can stop buying shark tooth necklaces and shark fin soup. —SH

Sustainability Discussion at Aquarium of the Bay: 12:15pm

Following the shark film program, join conservationists and sustainable seafood industry leaders for an invigorating panel discussion at Aquarium of the Bay, on ocean sustainability, from fishing to consumption.
The discussion will be moderated by local filmmaker and Director of Sea Stewards.org David McGuire, and will feature panelists including:

• Casson Trenor, author, sustainability guru and consultant to Tataki Sushi & Sake Bar
• Kenny Belov, owner of Fish. Restaurant, co- founder of Two x Sea Seafood Co. and founder of Fish or Cut Bait
• Crystal Sanders, fisheries biologist and conservation coordinator for Aquarium of the Bay
• Paul Johnson, author and owner of Monterey Fish Company restaurant
• Christopher Chin, Executive Director and Founder of COARE (the Center for Oceanic Awareness, Research, and Education)

The discussion is open to shark film program ticket holders, festival pass holders and festival attendees with an Aquarium voucher.

1:00 pm – Program 7

2009 SAP 505 World Championship

(USA), Vincent Casalaina*, 3 mins

The unpredictable breezes of San Francisco Bay make for exciting dinghy racing ’round the “Berkeley Circle” aboard high-performance two-person 505s. —KH

Surfing Dolphins

(USA), Greg Huglin*, 19 mins

Beyond simply beautiful or sublime, this jubilant and lyrical montage combines exquisite dolphin footage with excellent water imagery and sound: a joy for the eye, the ear, and the ocean-lover’s soul. —MJS

Tragedies in the Mist

(USA), Jefferson Gray, 30 mins

Plunge into the inland ocean of Lake Huron and explore some of the 200 shipwrecks of justly named Thunder Bay. Timber-shivering storms, towering waves, lashing winds, and treacherous fog have all taken their toll. This film chronicles 12,000 years of navigation, from birch bark canoes to modern ROV-equipped vessels, and the marine sanctuary’s work to preserve those still at sea. —MJS

Terra Antarctica

(USA), Jon Bowermaster*, 49 mins

In Antarctica, it’s all about the ice––the seasonal halo of it that rising temperatures have been melting earlier each decade. That means rain, not snow. And that means rain-soaked penguin chicks and erosion of the continent’s massive ice shelves. Ever-larger cruise ships and national quarrels about the continent’s resources loom in the misty future of this astonishing place. —SH

4:00 pm – Program 8

Vegetables from the Sea

(New Zealand), Adam Hermans, 6 mins

No earthbound Eden yields produce like this! This short film celebrates the bounty of Neptune’s garden. Oooh, the glory of nori, whether in its deep ruby incarnation or in diaphanous emerald sheets. And aaah, the crunch of kelp, a toothsome treat in salads or succulent chowders, redolent of the salt sea air. —MJS

Wastewater Woes

(USA), Amy Miller & Sheraz Sadiq, 11 mins

The malodorous subject of sewage spills exposes some even stinkier realities. Deferred maintenance, buck-passing, outright neglect, and heavy rains have taken a toll on our overtaxed, aging sewer and water treatment infrastructure. Good thing this documentary was not made for Smell-O-Vision. —MJS

What Would Darwin Think?

(USA), Jon Bowermaster*, 25 mins

Jon Bowermaster shows us that in the Galapagos Islands, nature pays in cash for its survival. With ecotourism key to the economy, wildlife managers must be attuned to a perilous balancing act between native and invasive species, the most invasive beingHomo sapiens. But tourists are not the primary problem; it’s the flood of immigrants from the mainland eager to cash in on the tourism boom. —MJS

Arctic Cliffhangers

(Canada), Julia Szucs*, 60 mins

In this dazzlingly photographed and adeptly scored film, biologists cling to vertiginous, wind-whipped cliffs on remote islands in the Canadian Arctic to study breeding seabirds. Over 300,000 murres, fulmars, and kittiwakes encrust every ledge on these 800-foot precipices. The scientists are conducting long-term studies to see how changes in ice conditions affect the birds, which may foretell more widespread changes. —MJS

7:00 pm – Program 9

Sea Horse Sleuths

(USA), Joan Johnson & Jenny Oh, 11 mins

Perhaps the most extraordinary creature in the sea, having the head of a horse, the tail of a monkey, and the eyes of a chameleon, the sea horse is a master of disguise. And it is the males that become pregnant. Sea horses are also popular for aquariums, curios, and most damaging of all, traditional Chinese medicine. —KH

Hobab e Sard (Frozen Bubble)

(Iran), Amir Joghataei, 35 mins

Iranian salvage divers face potential defeat by a tenaciously elusive shipwreck, enduring setback after setback, facing frustration, at times ennui, sometimes danger. Beautifully filmed, hauntingly scored, and well-paced, this film carries you through their two-month voyage as you wonder what, in the end, will ultimately surface. —MJS

The Edge of the Sea

(USA), Maria Jose Calderon, 27 mins

Development in Puerto Rico that closes off public access to the ocean is illegal, but the usual cast of self-centered developers, complaisant officials, and the politically connected rich have their ways. After all, says a promoter of tourism and jobs, Venice is built over water. Mamma mia! As this balanced film shows us, though, poor fishermen also have their ways. —SH

The Whale that Ate Jaws

(UK), Jonathan Hughes, 45 mins

Off the coast of San Francisco, a white shark and a killer whale settle the question of supremacy in the seas. Plausible re-creation, clear graphics, and footage of the actual 1997 attack illustrate the hunting strategy of killer whales when stalking dangerous prey, here and in the Southern Hemisphere. —MJS

Sunday, February 7, 2010

10:00 am – Program 10

Indonesia’s Reef Warriors

(USA), Roger Uzun, 3 mins

On Indonesia’s reefs, the only rule is eat or be eaten. Some of the creatures there have evolved extraordinary ways to stalk and capture their prey. —KH

Ocean Melody – Ocean for Life

(USA), Danny Ledonne, 4 mins

Mix high school students from North America and fellow teens from the Near East, provide the mighty Pacific as a backdrop, and watch as the music takes form. The concept of harmony evolves into a beautiful, melodious reality. In Arabic, English, and Spanish. —MJS

Lost on a Reef

(USA), Stephani Gordon, 16 mins

Maritime archaeologists explore the shipwrecks within the newly created Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument that surrounds the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Until fairly recently its reefs were badly charted and often brought grief to passing ships, each one with its own story to tell. —KH

Dipole

(Netherlands), Edward Snijders*, 26 mins

In the late 1990s, an Indonesian coral reef was devastated by the cold Indian Ocean Dipole and fallout from drought-provoked forest fires. As the reef recovers, its marine life needs protection. When octopus fishermen and egg collectors instead find work as tourist guides and with a turtle conservation organization, the reef is given many helping hands. —SH

From the Badlands to Alcatraz

(USA), Nancy Iverson*, 56 mins (Q&A Participants: Members of the Pine Ridge Lakota tribe)

Five Lakota youth—Alkapoane White Calf, Lisa and Kelly Waters, and Arlo and Philip Iron Cloud—travel from South Dakota to San Francisco to swim from Alcatraz to the City. This vivid and inspiring film weaves together the past and present of both Alcatraz and the Pine Ridge Reservation as it follows the group from their first Bay plunge to their leap into the challenging waters off The Rock. Just making that leap is a triumph for them all, bringing them closer to confronting their fears and dealing with the daunting challenges they face back home. —SH

1:00 pm – Program 11

Reef’s End

(USA), Shawn Heinrichs, 5 mins

The ocean’s threatened reefs are essential to sustaining life on earth. Stripping reefs of sharks for their fins, of turtles unintentionally as bycatch or for their shells, and of breeding adult fish to stock fish farms destroys these intricate ecosystems and the ocean life that feeds millions––including us. —SH

The Bering Sea: An Ecosystem in Crisis

(USA), Brent Balalas, 12 mins

Aleuts deplore the devastation by factory trawlers, whose obscene wastefulness and massive habitat destruction is wiping out the last remnants of the pollock fishery. Elders lament, “The seals are starving … Our people are suffering.” Now they’re working toward a new approach to fisheries management: utilize native cultural heritage values and develop grassroots co-management schemes. —MJS

Acid Test: The Global Challenge of
Ocean Acidification

(USA), Natural Resources Defense Council, 21 mins* (Q&A led by world-renowned ocean acidification expert Ken Caldeira)

The idea that the oceans might be the best recipient of the excess carbon dioxide currently polluting the atmosphere has it proponents. However, there is a cost, a prohibitive one: CO2 + H20 = H2CO3, carbonic acid, which inhibits the formation of calcium, the essential ingredient for seashells and coral, and disrupts the balance of the ocean. —KH

Magic Blue Wave

(France), Guy Chaumette, 26 mins

Go down more than 20 feet and it’s hard to discern much color in the sea. Yet, under artificial light, we discover that sea creatures display vibrant colors that encourage potential partners, discourage predators, or attract prey. In this world of illusion, these animals must have a different way of seeing. —KH

Free Swim

(USA), Jennifer Galvin*, 50 mins

This award-winning documentary chronicles a project to bring Bahamians a sense of empowerment by developing a very special skill: surviving in the ocean that surrounds them. After a boy’s tragic drowning, young Americans help Bahamian kids cope with fears both real and imagined, and minimize the threat that increasing tourism might further alienate them from their coastal identities. —MJS

4:00 pm – Program 12

Ocean Chronicles

(Spain), Leandro Blanco, 5 mins

Leandro Blanco’s kaleidoscope of images whirls through time and space in this dizzying exploration of humankind’s relationship with the ocean. Surreal and edgy, it reaches back into history and slingshots us into the present. Where will the future take us? The end of this tale is yet unwritten. —MJS

Life by the Tide

(USA), Joshua Cassidy*, 7 mins

With beautiful cinematography pensively scored, this film offers amazing views of life in the ever-changing intertidal zone. Whimsically fashioned, gem-colored sea creatures are shown languidly living life in slow motion, when suddenly their habitat and existence become transformed by the wild, pummeling surf. —MJS

The Southern Passage

(USA), William Bayne*, 25 mins

In 2009, adequate funding and many public hearings finally made real the goals of the 1999 Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) for Southern California’s coastal waters. When high-tech gizmos allow someone with even just a skiff to precisely locate targeted fish, those fish need help. This process is only a first effort toward creating a network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) along California’s coastline, but as one sport fisherman says, “You can’t steer a ship until it’s moving.” —SH

Alexandra’s Echo

(Canada), Helen Slinger*, 47 mins

Alexandra Morton came to the isolated Broughton Archipelago off western Canada to study killer whales. As the local orca population began to dwindle, she wanted to know why. She turned her attention to the numerous salmon farms found in the region. Her enquiries were not welcome. —KH

South Georgia Island: A Southern Ocean Paradise

(USA) Corina Gamma, JJ L’Heureux*, C. Hunter Johnson*, 19 mins

With the gift of no narration, this film allows us to fully enjoy Johnson’s rich score and superb images by filmmaker Gamma and photographer L’Heureux. An albatross effortlessly gliding the waves and a bowing pair of gentoo penguins are two of many scenes that will linger in the mind, reminding us that this paradise for marine life––and for us––needs our protection forever. —SH

*Filmmaker scheduled to lead Q&A discussion

Our thanks to volunteer reviewers Sidney Hollister (SH), Keith Howell (KH), and Mary Jane Schramm (MJS).

© 2010 Sidney Hollister, Keith Howell, Mary Jane Schramm and the San Francisco Ocean Film Festival.