Film Review: "Chasing Coral" (2017).

"They say it's one of the rarest events in nature happening and everyone's just oblivious to it. And you can't blame them for it, it's just almost typical of all of humanity." This is Chasing Coral. This documentary film directed by Jeff Orlowski and written by Orlowski, Davis Coombe and Vickie Curtis. Divers, scientists and photographers around the world mount an epic underwater campaign to document the disappearance of coral reefs.

True, there's no blood this time around, no gruesome images of dolphins dying, but it could be argued that the supernaturally beautiful images that Orlowski captures are even more despairing and alarming. The doc is obviously a big screen advocacy spotlight for the project, but it is also a fascinating portrait of a man infatuated with nature, photography, and their combined ability to affect people in spellbinding ways. Orlowski's soulful direction, coupled with Balog's evocative eye, predictably leads to a number of awe-inspiring juxtapositions, best sampled on the big screen. Orlowski's documentary is brilliant because of the wondrous way it shows a worldwide story and a personal one at the same time. While their persistence is remarkable, it is rewarded by the breathtaking yet heartbreaking images obtained. In every location, they find irrefutable evidence of the dramatic degradation of the planet's oceans. As a documentary, it offers most of its likely viewers grim confirmation of what they already know, rather than the thrill of discovery. Less a didactic 'message-movie' than a study of one man's steely determination, the debut helmer directs with a sure hand and no-frills aesthetic. If seeing equals believing, then this film's documentation ought to sway the world. But daredevil heroes and sexy screen goddesses probably help the medicine go down. Chasing Ice will open your eyes to a world you've never seen before and it will make you think. But whether any of us can change anything is a different matter altogether. While skeptics continue to doubt global warming is a man-made phenomenon, the film leaves little doubt it is occurring. A few scientists pop their heads in here, a few charts are deployed, but the film is powered primarily by the imagery, stark, irrefutable evidence that the planet is warming, not in one or two isolated places but everywhere. The film is a beautiful film to watch, especially on the big screen. But the documentary's visual pleasures come with a heavy dose of guilt. It's sobering stuff but the film's impact is somewhat diminished by Orlowski, who continues to crusade despite the toll his endeavours have taken on his body. While more detailed scientific analysis and greater discussion of impacts would have been welcome, the film's visual rhetoric is solid. A project of heroic, Herzogian endeavour. Mad, you might say. But probably not as mad as what the rest of us are doing about climate change: namely almost nothing. Still an eco-sceptic? Clap your eyes on this lot. Awe-inspiring, terrifying, transcendently beautiful, and absolutely weighted with significance for the future of the planet.

Simon says Chasing Coral receives: