A Plastic Ocean – We Need a Wave of Change – Film
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(All proceeds directly benefit the Plastic Oceans Foundation)
VISIT PLASTIC OCEANS FOR MORE INFO: http://www.plasticoceans.ca/
About the Film:
Scientists Solving a Jigsaw Puzzle…Gyre by Gyre
If it was happening in one gyre, they suspected it was happening in all of them. But the filmmakers needed experts to prove it.
Scientists were brought in at each stage to analyze the findings from one part of the story to add their data to the overall report on the five gyres.
In the center of the Pacific Ocean gyre our researchers found more plastic than plankton. A Plastic Ocean documents the newest science, proving how plastics, once they enter the oceans, break up into small particulates that enter the food chain where they attract toxins like a magnet. These toxins are stored in seafood’s fatty tissues, and eventually consumed by us.
- Producer Jo Ruxton joined an expedition to the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the North Pacific Gyre, 1500 miles off the coast of San Francisco, to ascertain its impact. When the expedition discovered free-floating microplastics instead of an anticipated solid mass that could be contained, Jo knew she had to begin the film that would become A Plastic Ocean.
- Jo had worked for the WWF International in Hong Kong and partnered with director and journalist Craig Leeson. Their first collaboration was on a documentary about endangered Pink Dolphins in Hong Kong.
- Jo and Craig brought on Dr. Lindsay Porter, an expert in cetaceans (whales and dolphins).
- Together they contacted the world’s experts to see what was known about plastic pollution in the gyres.
- The team expanded to include Dr. Bonnie Monteleone who had already found microplastic in other gyres she had investigated. She joined the expedition to the South Pacific gyre.
- With new information emerging about the extent of the issue in each of the Ocean gyres, free diving champion Tanya Streeter joined the team. Together they set off on what would be a four-year global odyssey to explore the issue of plastics in our oceans and its effect on marine ecosystems and human health, including endocrine disruption.
FACTS ABOUT THE FILM:
- A Plastic Ocean has been screened in over 60 countries and on 6 continents.
- There have been over 400 screenings hosted by government agencies, non-profits, schools, universities, individuals, multilateral institutions, corporations, aquariums and many more.
- Nine film festival awards.
- The film has been subtitled to over 10 languages and is currently in process of adding more, including Arabic, Indonesian and Thai.
- The 22-minute version of the film was screened at the UN’s Ocean Conference on June 6 in New York City, to a crowd of over 500 people.
- Plastic Oceans Foundation has over 50 partnerships around the globe with non-profits, government agencies, businesses, universities and schools. Highlights of some of these partnerships include phasing out Styrofoam containers in the US Embassy in Peru, changing legislation in Barbados and potentially Australia, reducing plastic consumption in hotels in New York, Phuket, Thailand and more.
- Plastic Oceans Foundation has reached over 92,000 Facebook members and has also launched Facebook pages in Colombia, Chile and Peru.
- The United Nations Information Center of Bogota screened the film in 25 schools throughout Colombia and over 200 students participated. They created videos and took pictures to share their commitment to reduce plastic.
- Plastic Oceans Foundation will be partnering with movie theaters along with IUCN, United Nations and US Embassies throughout Latin America to screen the film for International Beach Clean Up Day in September.
WATCH THE TRAILER:
Plastic Oceans Foundation is a global charitable organisation that aims to change the worlds’ attitude to plastic in a single generation. The organisation aims to limit the demand for non-essential plastic, using the Ocean as a litmus test to monitor the impact of this man-made pollution crisis on human health.