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Cowell Theater
The San Francisco (SF) Ocean Film Festival surges into the
Cowell Theater in January with an innovative audiovisual program
guaranteed to inspire rapture of the deep. Like previous events
in 2004 and 2005, the 2006 festival presents documentaries
and narrative works from all over the globe.
The 2006 SF ocean fest features movies from a wide range
of filmmakers who bring ocean issues and habitats, seafaring
explorers, saltwater sports, and coastal culture into sharp
focus for festival audiences. The eclectic 2005 festival included
films on Philippine fish markets, Alaskan tsunamis, heroic
swimmers, and fantastic creatures – from starfish to
seahorses and vampire squids. Other entries looked at coastal
development battles, endangered leatherback turtles, and sea
life from Antarctica to Fiji.
 Surfing
is big at the 2006 festival – the movie Mavericks
screens with local surfers present for the viewing. Mavericks
documents the enormous offshore waves attracting world-class
surfers to remote waters just north of Half Moon Bay, CA.
Also on the program is Samurai Surfers (2005), a film
about surfing eco-warriors in Puerto Rico produced by University
of California, Berkeley journalism school graduate Sachi Cunningham.
Other movies in this year’s film fest also feature
extreme water sports. Tsunami Rangers tells the story
of a local team of ocean adventure kayakers who paddle the
roughest waves along the northern California coast. Raptures
of the Deep is a thriller from Israel about Red Sea scuba
diving. Channel Swim focuses on a San Francisco Dolphin
Club member who recently swam the English Channel.
 The
marine environment takes center stage in several films at
the 2006 festival. The Gulf of the Farallones National Marine
Sanctuary’s Cold Water Haven explores rich coastal
habitats. A Life Among Whales is a beautiful movie
about whales, people, and the pioneering research of noted
biologist and activist Roger Payne. A shorter film on fur
seals also screens. A different kind of wildlife stars in
City of Mermaids, a visual feast about three generations
of underwater performers at Florida’s kitschy aquatic
theme park, Weeki Wachee Springs.
The festival’s community partners sustain interest in
the festival throughout the year with education and events.
One festival partner, SF Maritime National Historical Park
(SFMNHP), is a big part of Fort Mason Center (FMC) in Building
E. The maritime park hosts the festival’s opening night
reception in the nearby SF Maritime Museum and holds special
screenings throughout the year at the SFMNHP visitor center,
a short distance from FMC.
A recent visitor center event in September offered free screenings
of three films, among them a hit from the first ocean film
fest in 2004 – award-winning Heart of the Sea: Kapolioka’ehukai.
Heart of the Sea portrays surf legend Rell Sunn, a
community activist and strong voice for breast cancer awareness
and native Hawaiian issues prior to her death in 1998.
Savor pounding waves, salt spray, gorgeous vistas, and exciting
stories of the sea at the SF Ocean Film Festival. For more
information, see January
14 and www.oceanfilmfest.org.
– Claudia Willen
Images:City Of Mermaids, by Leah Wolchok; Samurai
Surfers by Sachi Cunningham; and Pacific sea otter Photo
Kelly huntington, The Marine Mammel Center.
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