When Rob Stewart's film Sharkwater Extinction finished its screening at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) two weeks ago, the audience gave a ten minute standing ovation. According to his friends and promoters of the film Julie Andersen and Brock Cahill, hardly a dry eye was in the crowd.
While TIFF brings international films, Hollywood actors and actresses and tons of press to Toronto once every year, the premiere of Sharkwater Extinction happened in the filmmaker's hometown.
But Stewart wasn't there.
It's been over a year since the activist, director, conservationist and diver drowned in the Florida Keys while filming his second documentary about the killing of sharks in ocean waters.
A number of locations had yet to be filmed when the tragedy occurred. Sharing his passion and believing that an end to shark finning is possible, those involved with Sharkwater Extinction continue on, bringing Stewart's film and their effort to help sharks to audiences across Canada. Cinéfest Sudbury is pleased to have the film at the festival at Silvercity on September 22.
Sudbury.com spoke with Brock Cahill and Julie Andersen ahead of the film's gala screening.
Andersen is the founder of the non-profit Shark Angels. Inspired by Sharkwater, Julie partnered with Rob Stewart to start United Conservationists - an organization that leads a "Fin Free" movement to ban shark finning internationally.
Cahill was Stewart's friend and "Ninja" for over ten years and is the founder of SeaChange Agency. He travelled with Stewart and the production team to Costa Rica, California and the Bahamas and appears in the new film.
The interview as well the responses of Cahill and Andersen have been edited and condensed.
Sudbury.com spoke with Brock Cahill and Julie Andersen ahead of the film's gala screening.
Andersen is the founder of the non-profit Shark Angels. Inspired by Sharkwater, Julie partnered with Rob Stewart to start United Conservationists - an organization that leads a "Fin Free" movement to ban shark finning internationally.
Cahill was Stewart's friend and "Ninja" for over ten years and is the founder of SeaChange Agency. He travelled with Stewart and the production team to Costa Rica, California and the Bahamas and appears in the new film.
The interview as well the responses of Cahill and Andersen have been edited and condensed.
Sudbury.com: You've just finished screening Sharkwater Extinction in Toronto at TIFF and now you're bringing the film to Cinéfest Sudbury. What can viewers in Nickel City expect?
Brock Cahill: I'm really looking forward to coming up and hanging out with you guys. Sharkwater Extinction is a pretty emotional roller coaster ride, but it's a beautiful film full of inspiration and hope and ability to make change. The viewers will get a chance to see the film here on Rob's turf. It's a dive into the differences between now and what happened in that time period.
Sudbury.com: What is the film about?
Julie Andersen: The film really is a personal journey of Rob discovering that 100 - 150 million sharks -- these creatures he adores are disappearing and he goes off on this amazing adventure, kind of a horrifying adventure at the same time, to figure out exactly what's happening.
Sudbury.com: What did your involvement in the film entail?
Brock Cahill: Robbie was my best friend and basically my brother for over a decade; I was his dive buddy and we spent a lot of time in the water together. When we started talking about the potential of making another movie, he asked if I would care to be involved in it.
He and I started strategizing on how best we would get this next movie underway and that was about three years ago. We started talking about how we were going to do it and started planning some shoots.
We began shooting down in Costa Rica which was like kind of returning to, shall we say, the scene of the crime from the first film. There, we started to dig up and turn over some stones and see what we could find and that led us on an adventure over the last few years.
We shot in a bunch of different countries and travelled all over the world together and then unfortunately, he had his accident. I have kind of continued on and taken the responsibility of getting to some of the places that we had planned to visit in this film.
Sudbury.com: We think about sharks in terms of shapes perhaps: a fin, their teeth -- but what are sharks really?
Julie Andersen: Oh gosh. What is a shark? They're just the most amazing creatures. Four-hundred and fifty million years of evolution have produced this perfect predator. They formed the oceans as we know it. They sit atop our oceans which are our biggest producer of oxygen and best defence against global warming because they absorb carbon dioxide. They're just kind of rulers of our planet.
Sudbury.com: Would you be willing to share your favourite memory of Rob?
Brock Cahill: I would love to actually, yes, thank you. One of my favourite memories -- and you'll see this shot as it appears in the film -- it's the most glorious and most beautiful shot I've ever seen in my entire life.
We were in one of the outlying islands in the Bahamas, it's called Cat Island and it's this specific place where oceanic whitetips tend to come every season in the summer to eat. Neither Rob nor I had ever been swimming with oceanic whitetips. They're very mysterious, amazing creatures and we wanted to feature them in this film because they're so beautiful and they're super endangered at this point.
Oceanic whitetips have really long pectoral fins kind of like the wings on a fighter jet; they use them in the currents to migrate huge long distances.
We had a chance to go out to Cat Island in the Bahamas and start filming these guys. Some estimates say that 90% of all oceanic whitetips have been fished out of the ocean. So, they're hard to find and when we did find them we had amazing days with them swimming under water, doing diving and other work with these majestic animals.
In one particular instant, the sun is going down in the Bahamas. So it's a pink sunset and we're on the surface of the water and the oceanic whitetips are cruising along, fins breaking the surface of the water and Rob had his camera and I'm sitting next to him in the water. He takes this under/over shot which is, it's a 50/50: meaning half the camera is under water and half the camera is above the surface water.
You see this incredible blue-pink sky, there's sea birds coming down into the frame and picking off some of the bait and then the sharks are coming up and everything is interacting at once.
Rob and I just look at each other and start laughing, uncontrollably, because you couldn't script this at all. To this day it remains my favourite shot I've ever seen on film.
Sudbury.com: What can audiences do when and if they feel inspired to help sharks after watching this film?
Julie Andersen: It was so important to Rob to not only to make entertainment or movies but to actually provide audiences with means to make a difference.
From a shark standpoint there's so many things people can do. We've put together a really easy list on Sharkwater.com of ten things that every single person can do.It really starts with being educated consumers. A lot of the movie is about where shark is ending up. It will probably shock you when you find out that you probably have shark products in your own home, too. Spending wisely and really understanding what is in a product you're buying is really where it all begins.
Canadians have an opportunity because right now legislation is being proposed to ban shark fin nationwide. Canada is the largest importer of shark fin outside of Asia. It can make a real difference to stand up and even stand up at the polls.
After screening at Cinéfest Sudbury, the film Sharkwater Extinction will be released in theatres nationwide on October 19. For more information go to: www.sharkwater.com/
View the trailer, here:
