Movie Mini-Reviews

Victoria filmaker Ian Hinkle will shoot undersea footage of Scott Cassell's potentially world-record non-stop dive Saturday, from Catalina Island's avalon Harbor to Los Angeles.

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Going to great depths to save ocean life

Scott Cassell already holds the record for longest non-stop dive but is ready to break it again while trying to preserve ocean life.

On September 17, the explorer and combat/commercial diver will attempt a 30-mile (48-kilometre) non-stop SCUBA dive from Catalina Island to Los Angeles, gathering information about shark population and what the ocean actually holds, a task that only human effort can accurately collect.

“[The ocean] is where monsters dwell,” says Cassell, who has spent more than 13,000 hours under water in his lifetime, “Where man’s imagination can become reality because it truly does have the most magnificent animals to ever have existed.”

From 1,000 ft. to 3,000 ft., he will be diving through two great white shark strike zones, and an area that has been known to contain very large Mako sharks, to calculate how many sharks there are in Southern California.

Aside from sharks, other dangers Cassell is prepared to face include hypothermia, decompression sickness, extraordinary currents, equipment failure, and physical exhaustion.

For this diver, however, his safety, although important, is not top priority. “Every dive is a mission,” says Cassell. “And the mission is always first.”  read more »

Charlie Chaplin
Born: April 16, 1889, London, England
Died: December 25, 1977, Vevey, Switzerland

- A man's true character comes out when he's drunk.
- A tramp, a gentleman, a poet, a dreamer, a lonely fellow, always hopeful of romance and adventure.
- I remain just one thing, and one thing only, and that is a clown. It places me on a far higher plane than any politician.
- We think too much and feel too little.
- I am for people. I can't help it.
- I do not have much patience with a thing of beauty that must be explained to be understood. If it does need additional interpretation by someone other than the creator, then I question whether it has fulfilled its purpose.
- I don't believe that the public knows what it wants; this is the conclusion that I have drawn from my career.
- I have no further use for America. I wouldn't go back there if Jesus Christ was President.
- A day without laughter is a day wasted.  read more »

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Interview: “Blood Dolphins” Star Lincoln O’Barry

Ric O'Barry has been a leader against the cruelty inflicted upon dolphins since his days working with them during the 1960s television series "Flipper." One of the areas of the world that O'Barry, along with his son Lincoln, have targeted over the past few years is Taiji, Japan where a spot called "The Cove" became the basis of an Academy Award-winning 2009 documentary about their efforts to stop the slaughtering of dolphins. With their new three-part Animal Planet mini-series, "Blood Dolphins," the O'Barrys pick up where "The Cove" left off with the team again trying to save the lives of innocent dolphins from senseless slaughter. Besides Taiji, the men travel to the Solomon Islands, which has been labeled one of the worst areas in the world for killing dolphins for profit. Our Jim Halterman talked with Lincoln O'Barry earlier this week about the dangers of bringing cameras to further document the dolphin trade as well as how one part of the dolphin - its teeth - is viewed in some regions as more valuable than actual currency.

Jim Halterman: Your dad has been involved with saving dolphins for decades and now you're involved with his activism. Was this never a question that this was your path in life?  read more »

Avatar director James Cameron played a part in halting an industrial development project that threatens indigenous people of the Amazon.

Palm oil plantation. Inset: deforestation by a logging company around a Penan village in the Middle Baram region in Sarawak.

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The Avatar director and one of its stars have played a part in halting an industrial development project that threatens indigenous people of the Amazon. Earlier this week, we brought you the story of James Cameron and Sigourney Weaver's trip to Brazil to raise awareness of the indigenous communities’ battles to stop the massive Belo Monte Dam on the Xingu River in the Amazon rainforest. We are now happy to report that the Dam Project Auctions have been canceled, and both stars are now in Washington DC for meetings with US Government officials.

Judge Antonio Carlos de Almeida Campelo granted a preliminary injunction (urgent) seeing “danger of irreparable harm” considering the imminence of the auction. The decision is the result of the assessment of one of two public civil actions filed by federal prosecutors dealing with irregularities of the enterprise. It focuses specifically on the lack of regulation of Article 176 of the Federal Constitution of Brazil, which requires the issuing of an ordinary law for the use of hydraulic potential on Indian lands.  read more »

"Whale Wars: Season 2" is coming soon, in the week of Dec. 29. 2009 - "This time they've gone too far".

Don't you think that there must be someone with great courage to stand between 750-ton whale-killing machines & their prey to end Japanese whaling once & for all? Ocean depletion is faster & faster...

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Faster & faster. In the last 50 years, massive depletion of Earth has been destroying a fragile balance in Nature, essential to life, putting all human beings in check: shall we act before too late to save Earth, home for all? ... Ice is melting, poles diminishing, sea level rising, Greenland fresh water pouring into the ocean & becoming salt water, severe draughts lingering, 1 out of 10 major rivers incapable of reaching the sea, 20% of Amazon deforested due to demand on soy manufacturing to feed livestock... What is the real terror threatening our home, depriving our children’s chance to survive? It is the destructive depletion of Earth that has been destroying our planet, faster & faster. Driven by Greed. Shall we act before too late to save Earth, home of all?

(click on image to see the documentary on Youtube)

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People in Iowa have a different, genuine quality and a self-sufficient humility

What do you miss about growing up and living in the Midwest?
The biggest thing I miss in Iowa is my mom. She still lives there, and I don't get to see her as often as I'd like. I miss the certain smell in Iowa when it's about to rain. I miss how quiet it is. I miss having neighbors that I know and that I like. The thing I probably miss most of all is that people in Iowa have a different, genuine quality and a self-sufficient humility, a desire to do things for themselves and not complain. I miss being around people that don't complain. I'm in the drama business, and there are a lot of dramatic people that seem to be not very happy with where they are.
Does it bother you to be called Mr. Demi Moore?
No. Why would it? People have called me much worse.
Do you still have all those trucker hats?
Yeah. I've got a giant box of them in storage. I probably have like 500 or 600 hats that people have sent me.

one man can have a voice as loud as a media network  read more »