Sharkwater, The Pervert's Guide to Cinema
It's hard for me to speak objectively about a documentary like Sharkwater without at least disclosing the fact that I'm very strongly in favor of animal rights. The term "animal rights" is a very loaded and polarizing one that immediately sets people into a certain frame of mind: for or against. Sharkwater is best viewed with an open mind; that is to say, it's a documentary about sharks, but it's also equally a documentary about activists and, to go even further, a documentary about preserving the balance of an ecosystem in order to save ourselves from future possible natural disaster.
The first noticeable thing about Sharkwater is that it's told in first-person by photographer/biologist Rob Stewart. This is his personal film and story, developed out of a great deal of beautiful footage of underwater explorations. Because of this we see a lot of Stewart and his naturally good-looking physique in the movie which, as overheard by a few people, might come across as a bit overbearingly egotistical. Setting that aside, this movie is made all the more stronger because it is a first-person retelling and not simply an omnipotent 3rd person voice speaking the truths of nature. It's the same reason Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin's pieces are so grabbing, and a big reason Herzog's Grizzly Man was so strong -- the adventurers and explorers are there telling their stories first-hand in places we don't have immediate access to see. They take us to places we can only dream of exploring, because they require years of study just to get there and the adventurer's spirit in order to overcome the fear of all the potential dangers at risk.
The movie begins with some extremely beautiful footage that was made all the more powerful on the big screen. It's absolutely breathtaking photography. Stewart's narration is a bit simplistic, but his deep voice serves to make it stand out stronger. He introduces us to sharks and then explores why sharks have such a bad reputation through interviews with some experts, interviews with a couple of random people, and some humorous archival footage. The stunning color photography is intermixed with black and white archival shots of sharks that work surprisingly well together -- it gives us a more balanced view.
After discussion on the poor name sharks have with people, mainly due to the media, Sharkwater then segues into Stewart's personal path in joining the environmental activist group Sea Shepherd. During this, he risks being arrested at various times and even faces a life threatening disease. The movie progresses more into Sea Shepherd's efforts, lead by Paul Watson who is a founding member of Greenpeace. It becomes increasingly more activist oriented, intermixing swimming shark footage with that of people cutting off their fins for the billion dollar shark fin industry.
It's hard to say whether the direction towards the end as far as showing the evils of the shark fin industry and Sea Shepherd's efforts is enlightening to people, annoying, or ineffective. I found it enlightening having heard of Sea Shepherd but not the shark fin industry, but certainly it could go in any direction for anyone else. There was a Q&A afterwards with Rob Stewart and Paul Watson (Sea Shepherd is based on Friday Harbor here in WA) but I was only able to stay briefly as the connection to the next movie was very tight. Stewart has a very strong enthusiasm that I think he shares with many great animal biologists who serve not only as researchers but who also motivate and encourage us to learn about our fellow species.
The transition into The Pervert's Guide to Cinema was a "SIFF dash" classic. I'm using the term "SIFF dash" to describe the frequently tight connections between showings requiring serious traffic navigating mojo and good parking-fu (assuming one is driving).
It starts with a single, solitary man, Slavoj Zizek, who is apparently a world famous philosopher and quite a fan of David Lynch and Alfred Hitchcock. He starts talking at the beginning of this two and a half hour movie and never really lets up until the end. The movie explores his ideas of psychoanalytical thought in terms of what cinema can tell us about ourselves and why we need it. Accompanying his sort of lecture-like but still very off-the-cuff speaking style were many snippets of some great classic films. His speaking style seemed all the more stronger for not being scripted, or if it was he did an excellent job of making it seem we were in on his thoughts at every second. Zizek's humor comes across at various points through playful things like inserting himself into sets made to look like a scene he was about to show. It's an entertaining wild ride exploring and pondering what films communicate to us, and for about the first hour or so it's extremely fascinating. Sometime just after the halfway point, I think we all needed a bit of a pause due to information overload because the barrage of philosophical ideas comes nonstop. That's not to say the movie waned in any way towards the end -- it just never let up. Despite that, Zizek's observations were very fascinating and enlightening and made me want to go back and re-explore some of the movies he examined. This is definitely a good college film student cult-classic in the making.
Audience Watch: Lots of whispery chit-chatters at SIFF this year, pretty much at every movie, which is really surprising.