“If the boat is sinking, we will all have to sink together,” Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary General of the United Nations, tells Actor Leonard DiCaprio in the movie, “Before the Flood.”
The movie documents DiCaprio’s three-year journey around the planet exploring the impact of climate change and the potential consequences for the oceans -- and the world, without a dramatic course-correct.
A screening of that film will kick-off the international
BLUE Ocean Film Festival and Conservation Summit, which takes place this year in St. Petersburg from November 11-13.
Over four days, in venues ranging from the Palladium Theatre to the Mahaffey Theater and Sundial Muvico, 90 award-winning environmental films from 24 countries will be shown to the public.
Some of the films are awe-inspiring and adventurous, like
The Kiteboard Legacy. Others, like
Killer Whales: The Mega Hunt might make you want to never swim in the ocean again, at least off the southern tip of Africa.
But most of the films, like “Dispatches from the Gulf”, about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, or
Coral Reefs: Trouble in Paradise are both beautiful visually and deeply disturbing. They’re meant to be.
BLUE is on a mission to use “film and visual media to raise awareness and inspire ocean stewardship around the globe.” It’s all about creating a dialogue, separate from politics, about what can be done to solve pressing worldwide environmental issues.
It might be easy to overlook news stories about the health of the world’s oceans or the dangers of climate change, but nothing beats the power of the visual to convert the skeptic.
For example, were you aware that “whales can’t turn the volume down?” Escalating levels of man-made sound in the oceans are harming marine life and damaging the oceans. Watch
Sonic Sea to learn more.
Launched in 2009, BLUE Ocean supports a number of initiatives, including the film festival, which rotates each year between the small principality of Monaco on the French Riviera and St. Petersburg, Fl. In 2015, co-Founders Debbie and Charles Kinder, decided to make St. Petersburg BLUE Ocean’s home base.
Marine-related issues and concerns are a natural fit for St. Petersburg. The city is home to what local leaders call the Ocean Team, a consortium for marine science, oceanographic and environmental research agencies and educational organizations that include the University of South Florida’s Center for Marine Science.
According to the
St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership, St. Petersburg is considered to be one of the top marine-affiliated industry clusters in the nation.
St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker will be among the keynote speakers for the BLUE Ocean film festival’s opening night at the Mahaffey Theater on Nov. 10. For a schedule of events and ticket prices, follow this link to
the festival’s website.
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