Ocean Heroes » filmmaker

PATRICK RYNNE, Waterlust.org

Jessica Muffett — Sun, 14 Jul 2013 00:16:59 +0000

Credit: Stephen Broadbelt

Who is Your Hero?

Patrick Rynne’s Waterlust.org is in its infant stages, but they have already stirred up plenty of attention. He is bringing scientists, explorers, athletes, water sport lovers, and art together in the pursuit of raising awareness how one person can positively impact our ocean environmental crisis by inspiring and educating others with films and photos. They make films and more importantly teach people how to be filmmakers, enabling them to create more ocean environmental awareness than they could on their own. Waterlust.org is creating an online community of water lovers/protectors by providing an online venue to share films and images.

How has your Nominees efforts made a difference for the better?

Patrick Rynne and his filmmakers film all over the world, and are using facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram to promote awareness and #share the lust.

How will being recognized as a YachtWorld Hero further your nominee’s cause?

As a group of graduate students, they have literally zero budget. “Zilch. Nada. Finito”. Exposure as a YachtWorld Hero will inspire more people to share their ocean films and images for everyone to view.

Please share any website or online articles about your nominee’s activities.

http://waterlust.org/Waterlust.html

http://instagram.com/waterlust

https://www.facebook.com/waterlustproject

http://www.rsmas.miami.edu/news-events/press-releases/2012/waterlust-project-brings-creativity-self-expression-wider-reach-for-researc

Patrick Rynne was nominated by Tim Claxton of Seattle, WA, in the category Defending our Oceans.

CHRIS JORDAN, Midwayfilm.com, a message from the gyre

Jessica Muffett — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 23:51:20 +0000

Who is Your Hero?

Chris Jordan’s film MidwayFilm.com, about the plight of the Laysan albatross, so far brings light to an area of severe abuse to creatures that have no advocates. As recently as the tsunami in Japan, with its dire impact on Humanity, nothing about the impact it had on these beautiful creatures received a sound bite of recognition after it wiped out 210,000 of the Albatross on Midway. Chris Jordan’s film can be an introduction to this topic, to a public who needs to know, that their packaging that brings life giving products to them, brings death to sea birds and marine life worldwide.

How has your nominee’s efforts made a difference for the better?

Consider how accepted whale oil was as an industry until oil was discovered in the ground in Pennsylvania a little over one hundred fifty years ago. Great news for whales,not so good for the planet as the by product of this oil became plastic an industry that has grown to staggering size with yet to be determined impacts. If we can learn anything from the whales it is to find an alternate product to plastic and other oil based products. Chris. photographer and artist, makes this clear with few words and powerful visual images.

How will being recognized as a YachtWorld Hero further your nominee’s cause?

The more attention drawn to this subject the better, particularly for the recreational boater who has opportunities to spread awareness of this film and curtail the plastics pollution in their boating communities. The effects of humanities lack of effective use of its resources (Plastic and oil based products) becomes obvious as this future movie will show.

Artist’s Statement

On Midway Atoll, a remote cluster of islands more than 2000 miles from the nearest continent, the detritus of our mass consumption surfaces in an astonishing place: inside the stomachs of thousands of dead baby albatrosses. The nesting chicks are fed lethal quantities of plastic by their parents, who mistake the floating trash for food as they forage over the vast polluted Pacific Ocean.

For me, kneeling over their carcasses is like looking into a macabre mirror. These birds reflect back an appallingly emblematic result of the collective trance of our consumerism and runaway industrial growth. Like the albatross, we first-world humans find ourselves lacking the ability to discern anymore what is nourishing from what is toxic to our lives and our spirits. Choked to death on our waste, the mythical albatross calls upon us to recognize that our greatest challenge lies not out there, but in here.

I envision our project not as being a bunch of us tramping around the island with cameras; instead I hope it will be an emotional and spiritual journey by a deeply connected group of artists, to honor the issues that Midway represents. Maybe it is not too ambitious to hope—if we can fully rise to the occasion—that we might be able to co-create a multi-media work of art that tenderly witnesses this middle point that humanity finds itself at right now. And in the eye of the storm —the apex of the Gyre—perhaps our collaborative efforts can create a container for healing that might have some small effect on the collective choice that is to come.

Please share any website or online articles about your nominee’s activities.

www.midwayfilm.com

www.midwayjourney.com

www.chrisjordan.com

http://www.prixpictet.com/portfolios/growth-shortlist/chris-jordan/statement/

Chris Jordan was nominated by Gil Donnelly of Princeville, Hi, in the category of Defending our Oceans.

Jean Michel Cousteau, Ocean Futures Society

Jessica Muffett — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 19:17:11 +0000

Since first being “thrown overboard” by his father at the age of seven with newly invented SCUBA gear on his back, Jean-Michel has been exploring the ocean realm. The son of ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau, Jean-Michel has investigated the world’s oceans aboard Calypso and Alcyone for much of his life. Honoring his heritage, Jean-Michel founded Ocean Futures Society in 1999 to carry on this pioneering work. Ocean Futures Society, a non-profit marine conservation and education organization, serves as a “Voice for the Ocean” by communicating in all media the critical bond between people and the sea and the importance of wise environmental policy. As Ocean Future’s spokesman, Jean-Michel serves as an impassioned diplomat for the environment, reaching out to the public through a variety of media.

He has produced over 80 films, received the Emmy, the Peabody Award, the 7 d’Or, and the Cable Ace Award. In 1989, he became a syndicated columnist for the Los Angeles Times where his articles appeared in over sixty newspapers worldwide. Reaching millions of people globally through Ocean Futures Society, Jean-Michel continues to produce environmentally oriented adventure programs and television specials, public service announcements, multi-media programs for schools, web-based marine content, books, articles for magazines, newspaper columns, and public lectures.

In 2006, Jean-Michel’s initiative to protect the Northwest Hawaiian Islands took him to The White House where he screened his PBS-KQED documentary, Voyage to Kure, for President George W. Bush. The President was inspired and in June 2006, he declared the 1,200-mile chain of islands a Marine National Monument—at the time; the largest marine protected areas in the world.

As Chairman of the Board and President of Ocean Futures Society, Jean-Michel travels the world, meeting with leaders and policymakers at the grassroots level and at the highest echelons of government and business. He is dedicated to educating young people, documenting stories of change and hope, and lending his reputation and support to energize alliances for positive change.

How has your nominee’s efforts made a difference for the better?

Explorer. Environmentalist. Educator. Film Producer. For more than four decades, Jean-Michel Cousteau has dedicated himself and his vast experience to communicate to people of all nations and generations his love and concern for our water planet.

How will being reognized as a YachtWorld Hero further your nominee’s cause?

More exposure to Ocean Futures Society furthers their mission to explore our global ocean, inspiring and educating people throughout the world to act responsibly for its protection, documenting the critical connection between humanity and nature, and celebrating the ocean’s vital importance to the survival of all life on our planet.

Please share any website or online articles about your nominee’s activities.

http://www.oceanfutures.org
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIl7zl_9fTA
http://www.pbs.org/kqed/oceanadventures/

Jean Michael Cousteau was nominated by Patricia Riley, Community Leader, Ft. Lauderdale, FL.