Attending the International Ocean Film Festival
After the recent launch of our art activism film with Sea Shepherd, we were honoured to be invited on stage at the International Ocean Film Festival to tell our story and talk about the making of the film.
I was in good company on one of the most nerve-wracking nights of my life, sat alongside Luke Ripley (filmmaker), Alex Sedgmond (photographer) and of course my brother and co-founder James Harrison (printmaker) where our short film The Last Vaquita was shown during the opening night of the International Ocean Film Festival, amongst a shortlist of world-class ocean-inspired films.
And it was a night I will remember forever.
The Executive Director of the IOFF opening the annual ocean film festival. Photo credit: Alex Sedgmond.
Watching The Last Vaquita from theatre seats was a surreal yet wonderful moment. Photo credit: Alex Sedgmond.
After years of storyboarding, graphical animation, scriptwriting, editing, sound design and grading, it was a surreal yet awesome experience to sit back in the theatre seats and watch our film play to the crowd of festival attendees.
It was the opening night of the festival, so we felt honoured to be invited on stage for a live Q&A to share our story as brothers, discuss the prospects of the Vaquita Porpoise and talk about our partnership with Sea Shepherd to save the most endangered marine mammal on the planet - the focus of our short documentary.
On stage during our Q&A, where we discussed our creative process, story as brothers and collaboration with Sea Sheperd. Photo credit: Alex Sedgmond.
I mentioned in another recent post that our dad has sadly passed away.
San Francisco was one of his favourite cities in the world, and he brought our mum here for their honeymoon, years back.
Dad was so incredibly proud that we brothers had made the shortlist for this world-renowned film festival.
All smiles with Luke Ripley (filmmaker) and Ana Blanco, the executive director of the festival. Photo credit: Alex Sedgmond.
More info:
If you'd like to support Sea Shepherd's ocean conservation work for the Vaquita and countless other species, you can donate to them here.
If you'd like to buy one of our Vaquita Porpoise interactive screenprints (with 20% of proceeds going to Sea Shepherd) you can buy the artwork here.
A big up to the whole crew who tirelessly worked on this documentary. It wouldn't have been possible without you.
Film credits:
Produced by Under the Skin
Edited by Luke Ripley & Ed Harrison
Filmed by Luke Ripley & Max Smith
Flat animation by Ed Harrison & Thomas Davies
Roto animations by Ben Pickles
Soundtrack by Tagore Chayne
Sound design by Adam G