From Nov. 2-9, High Seas Alliance members participated in the Blue Ocean Film Festival held in St. Petersburg, Florida. The prestigious festival is one of the biggest environmental documentary film events in the world, with projects from the likes of 60 Minutes, National Geographic, the Smithsonian Channel and Telemundo. The seven-day event drew about 20,000 people. High Seas Alliance team members, Mirella von Lindenfels and Nicholas Steel met with the ocean community at the festival in St Petersburg Florida to build a “wave of change” for the high seas, raising awareness for the urgent need for stronger high seas protection.
Numerous feature films and documentaries were shown throughout the week, underlining both the beauty of the ocean and threats facing them. Highlights of these films included James Cameron’s “Deepsea Challenge”, Jeremy Irons’ “Trashed” and Sylvia Earle’s “Mission Blue”.
During the festival, the High Seas Alliance invited participants to be photographed doing “the wave” and record a video message to UN delegates. The climax of the week-long film festival was the awards ceremony where the audience participated in a mass wave of change to show their support for better UN protection for the high seas.
Thank you to everyone who supported the wave of change at the Blue Ocean Film Festival
The wave images and videos messages collected have been shared with supporters on social media and many are included in our latest Wave of Change video.
In the run up to the crucial UN BBNJ meeting on 20th -23rd January, HSA is continuing to reach out on social media and has just launched a Thunderclap that we encourage all of you to join.
Cover photo by High Seas Alliance