Great White Shark

A new experience from the makers of Pulse, Wild Ocean and The Last Reef. Misrepresented, maligned and under threat, the great white shark is an iconic predator: the creature we love to fear…

The film will explore the great white’s place in our imaginations, in our fears, and in the reality of its role at the top of the oceanic food chain. Shot on location in South Africa, New Zealand, Mexico and California, the film looks to find the truth behind the mythic creature forever stigmatized by its portrayal in the world’s first blockbuster movie, Jaws.

Great whites predate the dinosaurs in evolutionary history, and have evolved to control their body temperature and give birth to live pups, much like mammals, yet we fail to look on them with the warmth we might afford land based carnivores such as lions, tigers and bears.

Great White Shark aims to reveal the strength and beauty of these animals by looking through the eyes of those who have been touched by their shark encounters: Mike Rutzen, South African shark expert, who swims with great whites in the aptly named Shark Alley; Chris Lowe who has been tagging juvenile great whites off the coast of Los Angeles and discovering more and more of their secret life; and two record breaking free-divers, Frederic Buyle and William Winram, who tag great whites by simply holding their breath and free-diving with the sharks.

The film will concentrate on several aggregation points around the world: Guadalupe Island, Mexico; Gansbaai, South Africa; Stewart Island, New Zealand; and, surprisingly, the beaches of Los Angeles, USA. Crucial to the film will be an exploration of kelp forest ecosystems, the place of the apex predator in that system, and how pollution and contamination spreads through that system and affects the apex predators, a category that includes mankind. The film culminates in a direct encounter between man and shark. Great White Shark concludes the oceanic trilogy begun by Wild Oceanand The Last Reef, and brings nature’s greatest predator to giant screens like never before.

Length: 20:00 and 40:00