Subjects: Life Science

In the remote volancis archipelago of the Crozet islands, meet David Reichert, a cameraman who has an extraordinary talent to locate, approach and tame some of the wildest beasts on Earth. Enduring raging winds and icy waters with minimal protection, he enters the intimacy of elephant seals and orcas using clever ethological analyses and gets them used to his presence. Then comes the extraordinary: meet a man who communicates with penguins with body languarge, calms young seals and turns them into live pillows, lies underwater with 8 ton orcas or mature male seals…Context: David Reichert is a young American wildlife filmmaker who has dedicated his life to his passion. Specialized in marine subjects, at ease in rough seas and icy waters, David had an incredible resistance to extreme environments and a real talent for dealing with complex wildlife situations. To achieve this unique film, he spent 4 months in an isolated bay on an island 2000 miles away from the nearest continent with Jean Francois Barthod, another talented filmmaker and director with a solid experience as a DOP of feature films. The result is a very unusual wildlife documentary entirely shot on S16mm film.

This entertaining tour aimed towards a young audience will undoubtedly also seduce adult spectators. These 13*4-minute films all shot in the wild will take the audience on a seamless and original music-based journey across the world and reveal the strangest, craziest and most hilarious animal attitudes. The series comes with specially designed musical material, which underlines the parody, the burlesque or satirizes classical music.

Around the Crozet Islands, here is the incredible odyssey of a family of Sperm Whales facing rapid changes in their environment. From the stormy surface to the eternal darkness of the abyss, several generations of these deep-sea divers encounter men and their “toys”: harpoons of yesterday, and fishing lines of today. Once victim of whale hunting, now accused of stealing fish, a sperm whale shares its private life with us. And what an immersion! We discover in turn its mysterious sonar, its competitors like orcas, and also the strange world of its neighbours-the deep-sea monsters. Amongst them, a revelation: the biggest squid ever filmed in its natural environment, almost 15 feet long. Come and discover the depths of the Crozet abyss… Context: this true tale of survival is shot in a rarely seen and utterly hostile corner of the Earth, the offshore waters of the Crozet islands. It took more than 7 years to gain the trust of local authorities and fishermen to film this incredible concentration of giants of the open ocean. Thanks to international scientific collaboration, the production team managed to deploy Remote Operated Vehicles in the abyss and design cameras adapted to the extreme filming conditions of the Southern seas.

Fur seals. We all know these circus animals which can juggle, jump, danse or applaude to the great joy of the audience. With large, tender eyes and a soft fur, they have been trained to entertain and amuse. This was our common vision, up to now now… Far from amusement parks, in the big frozen ocean surrounding Antarctica, the fur seal presents a very different face from that of the playful creature. This groundbreaking one-hour special unveils the dark side of this mysterious predator. Half way between a tale and an investigation, this film follows the destiny of a young male fur seal who has taken refuge on a remote volcanic island of the Southern Seas. An animal that kills more than it apparently needs to survive. No palm trees, no trainer or turquoise pools are to be seen here. Instead, he lives in a hostile world where the rules of survival are mastered through a strict learning process. All through the seal’s coming of age, the self-taught animal moves through different stages that will in turn enable him to produce offspring: after a birth on land, the seal leaves for the high seas, endures storms, and above all, learns. He learns to hunt, to fight, to become an opportunistic predator but also to share the dusky dolphins’ experience or to escape the killer whale’s jaws. Context: This film has involved very dedicated film crews in extreme situations: it was shot over a 6 year period in the remote Prince Edward Islands, in the utterly difficult open ocean of the so-called Roaring Forties and offshore Patagonia. It delivers both a comprehensive biography of a popular animal and a very modern approach to natural history. This film associates an unusual soundtrack with Rap songs to more classical blue chip behavior, most of which has never been seen before.

Who are these ferocious predators of the Antarctic continent that kill each year thousands of penguins and leave some injured birds behind to the scavengers of the ice? To find out, come and follow Göran Ehlmé, an experienced underwater cinematographer and expert of the cold seas, in his quest to uncover the fascinating behavior of the secretive… Leopard Seals. Amidst the pristine but freezing waters surrounding the white continent, the audience will be given a unique insight into the mysterious daily lives of Leopard Seals and discover some never-before-filmed behaviors of these highly intelligent predators. ” Killer seals” will reveal how Leopard Seals hunt penguins underwater or on land, charging unwary trespassers on the ice, be they penguin or human! Thanks to Göran Ehlmé’s close and emotional relationship with Leopard Seals, the public will be astonished to discover that each animal has – like human beings – its own distinctive character and moods. Göran is one of the rare divers in the world who dares to defy the deadly jaws of this predator in order to gain its trust and solve the mystery of its natural but puzzling aggressive temper.