“Sea of Shadows” is director Richard Ladkani’s second “eco-thriller.” It’s a documentary ostensibly about scientists, activists, and law enforcement agents who are all trying to protect one of the most endangered species on Earth, but it plays more like a popcorn-friendly narrative feature thanks to the fact that Mexican drug cartels and the Chinese mafia are all intertwined in the story.
“Sea of Shadows” follows the intertwined plights of the the Vaquita porpoise and the totoaba fish in the Sea of Cortez as Mexican drug cartels erect illegal gill nets to catch totoaba to export to China, where there is a thriving illegal market for their bladders, which are purported to have medicinal properties. But those nets also catch the extremely endangered vaquita porpoise, posing a threat to the Sea’s entire delicate ecosystem.
The new genre in which the filmmaker has been working is something he and...
“Sea of Shadows” follows the intertwined plights of the the Vaquita porpoise and the totoaba fish in the Sea of Cortez as Mexican drug cartels erect illegal gill nets to catch totoaba to export to China, where there is a thriving illegal market for their bladders, which are purported to have medicinal properties. But those nets also catch the extremely endangered vaquita porpoise, posing a threat to the Sea’s entire delicate ecosystem.
The new genre in which the filmmaker has been working is something he and...
- 11/8/2019
- by Jean Bentley
- Indiewire
The documentary Sea of Shadows has gained a prominent advocate as it steams into awards season.
Renowned conservationist Dr. Jane Goodall is praising the film, which tells the story of dramatic efforts to save the last few remaining vaquita whales—an adorable dolphin-like creature native to the Sea of Cortez off Baja California.
“Sea of Shadows is so important,” Goodall, who was not involved in the production of the documentary, tells Deadline. “Not only does it bring awareness about the existence of this little whale, and I must say I’d never heard of it, but in addition to that, those people who are out there trying to save the vaquita, risking their lives.”
Goodall, her gray hair pulled back neatly in a ponytail, held a plush toy vaquita in her lap as she spoke with Deadline at a hotel in West Hollywood.
“I think the importance of the vaquita...
Renowned conservationist Dr. Jane Goodall is praising the film, which tells the story of dramatic efforts to save the last few remaining vaquita whales—an adorable dolphin-like creature native to the Sea of Cortez off Baja California.
“Sea of Shadows is so important,” Goodall, who was not involved in the production of the documentary, tells Deadline. “Not only does it bring awareness about the existence of this little whale, and I must say I’d never heard of it, but in addition to that, those people who are out there trying to save the vaquita, risking their lives.”
Goodall, her gray hair pulled back neatly in a ponytail, held a plush toy vaquita in her lap as she spoke with Deadline at a hotel in West Hollywood.
“I think the importance of the vaquita...
- 11/4/2019
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
It’s a decidedly grim circle of life that moves us all in “Sea of Shadows,” a tight, troubling documentary eco-thriller that charts a compelling course of consequence from Chinese black-market apothecaries to the near-extinction of a rare whale in the Sea of Cortez, hitting on Mexican crime cartels and institutional corruption along the way. Austrian director-cinematographer Richard Ladkani has form in this field, having previously co-helmed Netflix’s urgent anti-poaching doc “The Ivory Trade,” and once more brings sturdy conventional craftsmanship and boots-on-the-ground engagement to an environmentally conscious, unabashedly heart-grabbing exposé. With its clear crowd-pleasing credentials confirmed by an audience award win at Sundance, “Sea of Shadows” will sail through the festival circuit; in an ideal match of sensibilities, National Geographic has secured worldwide rights.
Louie Psihoyos’s 2009 Oscar-winner “The Cove” provides the most obvious commercial precedent for “Sea of Shadows,” though Ladkani’s film is something of a shape-shifter,...
Louie Psihoyos’s 2009 Oscar-winner “The Cove” provides the most obvious commercial precedent for “Sea of Shadows,” though Ladkani’s film is something of a shape-shifter,...
- 2/21/2019
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
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