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Overlooked & Underrated Docs & Features
(click on broll or dschwartz for all his posts)
Minds in the Water: Saving Cetaceans
“Minds in the Water” is a powerful, compelling documentary highlighting efforts to stop the slaughter of cetaceans – whales and dolphins. Although the film has not received the same amount of notoriety as “The Cove”, it most certainly deserves it – and more.
Executive producer and director Justin Krumb tells many stories in his film’s 85 minutes. These stories revolve around the central character, Dave ‘Rasta’ Rastovich, and the chronicle of his conversion from international surfing champion to inspiring environmental activist.
I confess bias here: Conversion experiences form my favorite kind of stories – especially the non-fiction sort. And when asked what animal I would like to be, without hesitation I’ve always responded ‘dolphin.’
But my review rests not on these biases. Rastovich’s story is quietly, almost sneakily dramatic as we learn from interview and narration how his character and life were radically and irreversibly transformed by his experiences with whales and dolphins, and, especially, as we see him act forcefully on these changes, taking himself out of surfing’s glowing limelight and placing himself in harm’s way, inspiring surfers and surfing communities around the world to join this global initiative, and co-founding Surfers for Cataceans.
The film’s production quality is excellent. I’m particularly concerned with sound in documentaries, and the production team made sure we hear virtually every word. “Minds in the Water” is also perfectly balanced between talking heads providing narrative and information and beatific moving images of humans and other creatures playing in the sea.
Like most issue-based documentary films, “Minds in the Water” – the movie, its website, and printed materials – provides all the information needed for the viewer to join the growing global initiative to save dolphins and whales. My first step will be to get a picture taken of myself holding up a picture of one or more cetaceans and submit it to the Visual Petition.
I beg your forgiveness as I loudly declare “Minds in the Water” a must-sea.