CHASING CORAL: A 2017 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL BN FAVORITE

CHASING CORAL

Chasing Coral, an epic documentary by award-winning filmmaker Jeff Orlowski, is bound to change the minds of everyone who sees it. It is one of our favorite films at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival.

Coral reefs are remarkable ecosystems that are critical to not only ocean life, but all life on earth. Our planet’s coral reefs are dying, largely as a result of climate change, and now, for the first time, everyone can watch it happen -- right in front of their eyes -- large and bright on screen.

Chasing Coral follows the stories of underwater photographer Richard Vevers, of The Ocean Agency, who along with scientist and self-proclaimed “coral nerd” Zackery Rago, set out on an adventure to explore the beauty and magic of coral reefs.

As an unprecedented underwater heat wave ensued, the team raced the clock to document the strange phenomenon, known as coral bleaching, which is killing the reefs.

Using a set of new underwater time-lapse cameras, invented for this project, Orlowski and the team documented the transformation taking place under the world’s oceans as a result of coral bleaching.

Orlowski first used revolutionary time-lapse cameras in his prior film, Chasing Ice, to capture a multi-year record of the world’s changing glaciers, delivering irrefutable, visual proof of global warming.

In Chasing Coral, from Bermuda to Hawaii to the Great Barrier Reef, the team chased this coral bleaching event over the course of 3 years, as it killed coral across the planet, offering additional proof of our climate change impacts.

This mass coral death has been accelerating at an astonishing pace. The implications are catastrophic. The public has been unaware because up until now, there was no way to see it.

Now, with its gorgeous breathtaking photography, showing both the beauty of the reef and the tragedy unfolding, Chasing Coral will grip you and move you. You will want to take action. And we will have to take action to save the reefs, to save ocean life, and to save all life on our precious blue planet.

Read more about Beautiful New Stories in The Most Beautiful Films of 2017 Sundance Festival: Vol. 1.

And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact Daily Fix posts.

Want more stories like this? Sign up for our weekly BN Newsletter, Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr. Join our BeautifulNow Community and connect with the most beautiful things happening in the world right now!

Do you have amazing photos? Enter them in this week’s BN Photo Competition. We run new creative competitions every week! Now, it’s even easier to enter with the new BeautifulNow App!

Plus check out the rest of our App’s beautiful features. It’s free to download here.

IMAGE CREDITS:

1. Image: Courtesy of Exposure Labs. Chasing Coral, directed by Jeff Orlowski.
2. Image: Courtesy of The Ocean Agency / XL Catlin Seaview Survey.
3. Image: Courtesy of The Ocean Agency / XL Catlin Seaview Survey.
4. Image: Courtesy of Exposure Labs. Chasing Coral, directed by Jeff Orlowski.
5. Image: Courtesy of Exposure Labs. Chasing Coral, directed by Jeff Orlowski.
6. Image: Courtesy of Exposure Labs. Chasing Ice, directed by Jeff Orlowski.
7. Image: Courtesy of Exposure Labs. Chasing Coral, directed by Jeff Orlowski.
8. Image: Courtesy of Acropora. Bleached branching coral (foreground) and normal branching coral (background). Keppel Islands, Great Barrier Reef.
9. Image: Courtesy of The Ocean Agency / XL Catlin Seaview Survey.
10. Image: Courtesy of Exposure Labs. Chasing Coral, directed by Jeff Orlowski.
11. Image: Courtesy of Exposure Labs. Chasing Coral, directed by Jeff Orlowski.
12. Image: by BN App - Download now!
13. Image: by Travis Wise. “Sundance Film Festival.”