Previous Festivals
Shipbreakers
Saturday, 1 pm
One Winter Story
Saturday, 4 pm
Jellyfish, A Lethal Beauty
Saturday, 7 pm
Cleaners, Predators and Freeloaders
Saturday, 7 pm
A Life With Skulls
Sunday, 10 am
Killers in Eden
Sunday, 10 am
Joy Ride
Sunday, 1 pm
Christmas at the Baitshop
Sunday, 4 pm
Film Program 2007
January 19 - 21
Cowell Theater, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco
» Youth Program for local middle schools and high schools
This year for the first time, the San Francisco Ocean Film Festival is devoting a special day to middle and high school students of the Bay Area. As part of our mission to increase awareness of the ocean, we have developed a free event where students can view inspirational and informative ocean films and interact with filmmakers and marine scientists.
Saturday, January 20
Program 1 - 10:00am »purchase ticketCry From the Past
Susan Stamp, 6 min, Australia
This animated reflection is of an elderly woman in 1940 in the whaling village of Twofold Bay, Eden, Australia. Seated beside the roaring fireplace watching the calm sea under the stars, she recalls the town, its old trees and lighthouse, its gathering places, and most of all, the partnership between the killer whales and local whalers in pursuit. — JC
SEASWAP
Kelly O'Brien, 35 min, USA
It usually takes some arm-twisting to get people who fish for a living to work with scientists, but life is full of surprises. What led to this cooperation in Alaska was the surprising discovery that sperm whales were snatching black cod right off the hook. So the fishing community asked scientists how to curb this whale buffet dining before it became an economic problem. They got more surprises, and some help.— SH
Seals for Real
Edward Snijders, 6 min, Netherlands
Along the South African and Namibian coasts, cape fur seals playfully interact with a lone diver. However, the fate of many of these seals is much less amusing. Commercial seal harvesting in Namibia has triggered action by Seal Alert, with support from influential corporations like DeBeers. Do fewer seals yield more fish, or is the culling of seals detrimental to fishing? — JC
Hurricanes on the Brink
Drew McKeen, 32 min, USA
Category 4 or 5 hurricanes have doubled in number since 1970. One reason, some argue, is the increased temperature of the world's oceans, since warm oceans fuel hurricanes. Is this pattern caused by global climate change? Most scientists say yes, and urge us to prepare for the storms to come. Other scientists, particularly at NOAA, feel differently. This film can help you decide for yourself. — SH
Aquanauts
Jerome Scemla , 53 min, France
The real Captain Nemos: exploration of the deep ocean from William Beebe's bathysphere in the 1930s, through the deep dive in the Mariana Trench of Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh in 1960, to the recent dives of Robert Ballard in the submersible Alvin to hydrothermal vents along the mid-oceanic rifts. (subtitled) — KH
The World of Gastropods
Danny Van Belle, 20 min, Belgium
Extraordinary close-up videography of gastropods, vibrantly colored nudibranchs (sea slugs), sea snails and other single-shelled sea creatures as they explore their environment, eat, fight, and mate – all in slow motion. — KH
Shipbreakers
Michael Kot, 42 min, Canada
Since 1983, a 10-km beach in Alang, Gujarat, India, has become the largest ship graveyard in the world, employing 40,000 to destroy the hulls of 300 ocean freighters annually. Dismantled with bare hands, the ships' environmental and health hazards are ignored for fear of losing the business to less stringent nations. This is a story of survival long after a ship has been retired. — JC
Favela Surf Dreams
Dean Hamer, 7 min, USA
Escolinha de Bodyboarding da Rocinha is a surfing school situated on a beach in Rio de Janeiro, downhill from one of the most dangerous slums in South America. With a pair of flippers, a foam board, and good waves, kids are taught to overcome adversity by focusing on school – both regular school and bodyboarding school, where big air and ripping are the highlights. — JC
Tonnara
David Hope, 52 min, England
A seasonal tuna fishery that uses net traps, tonnare, has existed for centuries off the coasts of Sicily and southern Italy. Now, the tonnara on Favignana, an island west of Sicily, is one of only two that survives – barely. Workers and money are scarce, and omnivorous factory ships, using spotter airplanes, are devastating the bluefin fishery. This film takes you into the dramatic middle of a communal tradition that, like many others, is threatened by modern life. — SH
Hawaiian Showers
Bryce Groark, 6 min, USA
One does a dance, one waves its antennae all about. But these reef creatures are playing the same game – signaling to fish in the area that they are open for business, ready to clean every cavity, gill, and tooth that ails them. As specialists, they are granted remarkable privileges by their patient clients. After all, only a foolish fish would bite the shrimp that cleans it. — SH
Sharks: Stewards of the Reef
Holiday Johnson, 27 min, USA
Pacific Islanders traditionally believed in shark deities as protectors. Now sharks need our protection. Every year, 100,000,000 sharks are killed, many just for their fins. Even with protection – and there is none – patrolling the high seas is realistically impossible. Real protection will come only at the cash register, for consumers will ultimately decide the fate of the world's sharks by buying or not buying shark-based products, especially shark-fin soup. — SH
Vancouver 2006
Alberto Cristini, 5 min, Italy
When Alberto Cristini crosses English Bay in Vancouver, Canada, he prefers an easel and oil paints as his flotation device. On a clear, sunny morning in July 2006, Cristini paints the Vancouver skyline in under an hour as he swims from Kitsilano Beach across to Stanley Park – a sequel to his earlier painting of the Golden Gate Bridge while crossing San Francisco Bay. — JC
Mad Mac and the Flat Ugly Snail
Bill Morris & Kate Bradbury, 25 min, New Zealand
Mac MacIntosh, a loner, eventually realized that to preserve his isolated life as a diver for paua, New Zealand's abalone, he couldn't continue to work alone. So he formed a paua divers’ cooperative. Goodbye middlemen, hello sudden wealth. Mac's openness in talking about how that wealth changed him and his idyllic life gives this film its structure and its heart. — SH
One Winter Story
Sally Lundburg & Elizabeth Pepin, 56 min, USA
Sarah Livermore Gerhardt was the first woman to charge Mavericks – the Everest of surfing spots – on March 2, 1999. However, her love of the waves dates back to her childhood as the primary caregiver for her mother, who raised her along California's central coast. From California to the north shore of Oahu and back, Sarah strives to live her life without limitations. —JC
Whale Sharks of Holbox
Mike Wham, 5 min, USA
Take away a fisherman's nets, lines and spears, and you better give him something in return. On Isla Holbox, off Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, the fishermen got work as tourist guides. Now, thousands of people come to see and swim with the enormous and gentle whale sharks that live in the island's waters. — SH
Jellyfish – A Lethal Beauty
Florian Guthknecht, 43 min, Germany
Beautiful and graceful, jellyfish are 99 percent water, with no blood, brains, or heart, yet they are the secret masters of the sea. They have been around for 600 million years and are found in every aquatic environment. And they have caused more human deaths than all the world's sharks and poisonous snakes combined. — KH
Cleaners, Predators, and Freeloaders
Rolf Moltgen, 43 min, Germany
(Quand les poissons se mettent à table, Special Jury Mention, FIFMEE 2005, Toulon, France)
You've always got to watch your back, or tail, in the undersea world. Fish have evolved extraordinary ways of seeing and hearing, both to find a meal and avoid being one. They've also perfected a piscatory repertoire for lying low, sometimes – by using camouflage – right out in the open. Most remarkably, some have learned to make their dental skills indispensable to fish that would otherwise gobble them up. — SH
Inside-Outside
Emmanuel & Maximilien Berque, 59 min, France
(Huis Clos, First Prize Winner, Golden Anchor, FIFMEE 2005, Toulon, France)
You are sailing in a small outrigger canoe from France to a Caribbean island, guided by the stars, when clouds blanket the heavens – for days. No problem. Just use your GPS, or radio, or, mon dieu, your compass and map. But the Berque brothers had decided to make the crossing using only the stars. And years of sailing experience. And 65 cans of sardines. — SH
Sunday, January 21
Program 5 - 10:00 am »purchase ticketSeals of La Jolla Harbor
Ramy Hassan, 7 min, USA
For years, sun and surf seekers have used this small beach in La Jolla. For even longer, harbor seals have hauled out on the same beach. It seems, now, that one group feels it has the ordained and exclusive right to that beach. This film speaks for the group that can't speak for itself. — SH
Wind Over Water
Ole Tangen, Jr., 32 min, USA
To help meet the growing demand for sources of renewable energy, the nation's first offshore wind farm is planned for the waters off Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Many local inhabitants, including erstwhile environmentalists, faced with an eyesore spoiling their pristine view of the ocean are contesting fervently. Hear all sides of the debate. — KH
A Life with Skulls
Beth Cataldo, 30 min, USA
With over 7,000 in his collection, including 1700 from California sea lions, Ray Bandar has been collecting skulls since 1953. Inspired by the artistry of Georgia O'Keefe and Henry Moore, Ray and his wife, Alkmene, have a basement filled with skulls' from anteaters to elephants – discovered on the road, along the shore, and in the zoo. He's an invaluable resource for the California Academy of Sciences. — JC
Jacques Cousteau: Above the Ocean
Tom Miller, 4 min, USA
Here's a comedic look at Pascale, a diver from the Calypso dive boat, who is sent ashore to bring back some Christmas toast for the crew. Join him as he makes himself at home in an urban apartment kitchen he has spotted from shore. — JC
Killers in Eden
Klaus Toft, 53 min, Australia
From "Grizzly Man" to "Of Penguins and Men" (SFOFF 2006), filmmakers have been fascinated with inter-species communication. Whalers who lived in Eden on the southern coast of Australia nearly a hundred years ago knew something about that communication. This film dramatically revisits a time when orcas and men hunted together. — SH
Birthplace of the Winds
Jon Bowermaster, 26 min, USA
A sea kayaking journey through the heart of Alaska's Aleutian chain, one of the loneliest, wildest, and least known places on Earth and home to some of the world's original kayakers. The goal of these four adventurers is to battle wind, rain, and fog to visit the Islands of Four Mountains and climb their volcanoes. — KH
Joy Ride Hawaii
Dean Hamer, 8 min, USA
Meet Tom Morey, inventor of the boogie board in 1972, and witness the fun of bodyboarding off the coast of Waimea Bay on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. The foam board has made wave riding a universal sport for all ages. — JC
The Rapa Nui Had a Dream
Gerard Bonnet & Philippe Ray, 55 min, France
(Les Rapa Nui ont fait un reve — Special Jury Mention, FIFMEE 2006, Toulon, France)
Its virgin forests may be gone and, as a colony of Chile, much of it is now a national park, but Easter Island's indigenous people, the Rapa Nui, remain. Descendants of the Maori of New Zealand, their dream is to restore and preserve their native culture. Decades of abuse by colonizers, combined with the influence of modern life, have almost made the dream a nightmare. But not quite. — SH
Seas of Change
Perry Pickert, 28 min, USA
No fish, no fishery, but how can a fisherman resist a gathering of fish so dense that a good catch is guaranteed? In the Virgin Islands a few years back, not many did. The result: Nassau grouper disappeared. Other species were headed for the same fate, until the government, scientists, and fishermen together decided a little TLC would be a good idea. —SH
Christmas at the Bait Shop
Judy Irving, 5 min, USA
For years, "Ahab", a Heerman's gull, returned from wintering in Mexico for the scrambled eggs whipped up by Keith Fraser at his San Rafael bait shop. "Nasty" and "Willie" join Ahab in Judy Irving's delightful film about some local characters and their earthbound friend. — SH
Fisher Poets
Jennifer Brett Winston, 42 min, USA
Fishing is famous for allowing plenty of time for contemplation. Many use that time creatively. Every year more than 50 commercial fishermen and fisherwomen gather together in Northwest bars and cafes to share their common passion: writing and reciting poetry that circumscribes their lives. — KH
The Day the Water Died
Richard Ray Perez, 29 min, USA
For 16 years, Exxon has avoided paying one cent of punitive damages awarded for the Exxon Valdez oil spill. With Alaska's Prince William Sound fisheries still suffering from the spill's catastrophic effects, this delay has driven many fishermen to seek work elsewhere. One young fisherman says he was taught that if you make a mess, you clean it up. Exxon's executives, having other priorities, apparently skipped that lesson. — SH
Deadly Dance Under the Sea
Etienne Verhaegen, 52 min, France/Belgium
Most marine creatures are carnivores; they live by devouring one another. Each species is both predator and prey. Watch undersea life-and-death battles, and, combining underwater and above-water photography, the total annihilation of huge schools of krill and herring by fish, whales, and seabirds as different species join forces to feed. — KH
SFOFF thanks our volunteer reviewers, Jane Clemmons, Sidney Hollister and Keith Howell, for these film descriptions.