Humbolt Squid High-Def Documentary Screening

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Another press release submitted by Christopher Buttner -- thanks!

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For Immediate Press Release and Event Calendar Listing
For more info, contact Christopher Buttner
at email: [email protected]
tel: 415-381-8647

Giant Squid Ecotourism Trips Draw Daredevil SCUBA Divers to Mexico's Sea of Cortez.

Never-Before-Seen Public Screening of First-Ever High-Definition Documentary Scheduled for 8:00 p.m., July 25, 2006, Pacific Theater, Hollywood, California

This press release is online at http://www.prthatrocks.com/pressrel/seawolvesscreeningpr.htm

July 7, 2006, Hollywood, California - Seawolves Unlimited is proud to present a very special public screening of the never-before-seen, high-resolution documentary "Sea of Demons: Demonio Rojo," (Red Demon), executive produced by Jason Perr of Gone to Baja Productions, and Scott Cassell, with cinematography by Dale Pearson and Scott Cassell of San Diego's Seawolves Unlimited. Seawolves Unlimited is the first-ever and only ecotourism company in world to offer scuba trips to dive with the most dangerous and unpredictable sea creature on Earth, the Giant Humboldt Squid of Mexico's Sea of Cortez.

With a legendary ferocity, the Humboldt squid (Dosidicus gigas), which grow to over six feet in length and weigh over 180-pounds, are armed with huge sucker disks lined with over 60,000 teeth that can shred a wetsuit, and their knife-edged beak can gouge out a softball-sized chunk of flesh every 3 seconds. Combined with their extraordinary intelligence and wolf pack-like hunting abilities, keeping an upper hand while scuba diving with these animals is a challenge. These magnificent cephalopods feed on nearly every animal they encounter, including sharks, pelagic fish, krill, mammals, other squid (they are fierce cannibals), and even man.

"Sea of Demons: Demonio Rojo" chronicles the history and biology of Giant Humboldt Squid and the lives of the pioneering divers, Scott Cassell and Dale Pearson, who developed the highly-specialized diving technologies and techniques, including diver protection platforms, chain maille-covered and/or custom-made armored wet suits, and other systems to safely peer into the lair of one of Earth's most legendary sea creatures.

The "Sea of Demons: Demonio Rojo" screening will take place on Wednesday, July 25, 2006, at 8:00 p.m. at the Hollywood Pacific Theater, 6433 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, CA, 90028. Scott Cassell, Dale Pearson and Jason Perr will be on hand to answer questions. Admission is only $5.00 and a $2.00 discount coupon can be printed from www.seaofdemons.com

For more info about Seawolves Unlimited, visit: www.sea-wolves.com - this press release is online at http://www.prthatrocks.com/pressrel/seawolvesscreeningpr.htm
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Anyone got plans for this event? I'm trying to plan my life enough to go, work permitting... I know Erich was going to point this out to his Hollyweird squid-fancier crowd, any word on whether anyone I met at your shows (Howard? Dave?) is planning to go? It'd be fun to meet any TONMOers who are there, and easier to meet if I know who to look for!
 
There are still a few hours left for you left-coasters to go see this event. Here's an email I got from the producer of the program. He also provided the flyer. Go check it out and report back here!

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Hi, This is Jason Perr. I am a diver and the independent Producer of "Sea of Demons: Demonio Rojo, the Truth behind the Humboldt Squid." The first documentary in the Sea of Demons Series of extreme diving documentaries. I would really like to invite everyone from Tonmo.com and your subscribers to come out and join us for our world premier at one of the greatest classic theaters in Los Angeles, the Hollywood Pacific Theater, on July 25th at 8pm.

This will be a free screening and is open to everyone. The theater has 1000 seats and we are looking to fill them all with people who love diving and want to see something new. I have attached our press release, flyer, and website info to this email. Any help in spreading the word would be greatly appreciated.

-- Thank you

-- Jason
 
I'm heading out the door in a couple of mins; I'll be there in a TONMOCON t-shirt!

- M
 
Well, I just got back from Hollyweird. The movie and some of the followup Q&A with Scott, Dale, and Jason were both pretty fun. I didn't get a chance to hang out afterwards, unfortunately (there was a plan to go to a bar...) but I certainly enjoyed the movie. It's very much dominated by Scott as a strong personality, which I liked, but it definitely was a mix of narrative and editorializing along with the factual elements. Scott pretty much explicitly said he didn't like the spin that a lot of documentaries like "killer squid" put on these animals, and he sees ecotourism as a way to protect them from overfishing.

In any case, the squid footage was pretty amazing. It had a lot more long shots of the animals than the short "dancing with demons" movie, and didn't go for the "adrenaline rush edit style" the way that does, but it's beautiful footage. They said it'll be available on DVD fairly soon (although it can use a bit of edit and title cleanup...) I give it a thumbs up, and I still want to go on one of their dive trips sometime when I have some spare time and money...

It seemed like the crowd was largely divers. I was a bit asocial and shy today, so I didn't talk to many people to see if I could dig up any other TONMO folks... I didn't see anyone I recognized, but that doesn't mean much...
 
monty said:
Well, I just got back from Hollyweird. The movie and some of the followup Q&A with Scott, Dale, and Jason were both pretty fun. I didn't get a chance to hang out afterwards, unfortunately (there was a plan to go to a bar...) but I certainly enjoyed the movie. It's very much dominated by Scott as a strong personality, which I liked, but it definitely was a mix of narrative and editorializing along with the factual elements. Scott pretty much explicitly said he didn't like the spin that a lot of documentaries like "killer squid" put on these animals, and he sees ecotourism as a way to protect them from overfishing.

In any case, the squid footage was pretty amazing. It had a lot more long shots of the animals than the short "dancing with demons" movie, and didn't go for the "adrenaline rush edit style" the way that does, but it's beautiful footage. They said it'll be available on DVD fairly soon (although it can use a bit of edit and title cleanup...) I give it a thumbs up, and I still want to go on one of their dive trips sometime when I have some spare time and money...

It seemed like the crowd was largely divers. I was a bit asocial and shy today, so I didn't talk to many people to see if I could dig up any other TONMO folks... I didn't see anyone I recognized, but that doesn't mean much...

I envy you, Monty! If only I could have been back home... sigh. Of course, CA is just as hot as we are right now, and here we all seem to have central AC... I would have loved to stick around for the Q & A. Isn't Scott an ex-special ops guy?
 
erich orser said:
I envy you, Monty! If only I could have been back home... sigh. Of course, CA is just as hot as we are right now, and here we all seem to have central AC... I would have loved to stick around for the Q & A. Isn't Scott an ex-special ops guy?

Yeah, he's some sort of secret underwater agent guy. He's also apparently the world record holder for "longest distance travelled on SCUBA" or something like that. It was just down the street from you Bat Show venue, actually. And yeah, it's been pretty friggin hot lately-- 119F in Woodland Hills last week, I believe; a friend down the street had her in-the-sun thermometer top out @125... yesterday was a bit better, at least.
 
Wow. That beats us for the year. I think we've topped-out (fingers crossed) at 113 F.

So, squid-diver Scott is the real-life Brock Samson! Awesome.
 
Incidentally, Howard was on his honeymoon in Europe, and the others I tried to reach couldn't free themselves or were likewise out of town.
 
oh yeah, and as long as you're being envious of Los Angeles events, I should point out that the LA Tofu Fest in Little Tokyo features Iron Chef Morimoto! I'm impressed, anyway...
 
Humboldts -- dangerous?

I haven't seen this film, but I'd like to.

I have one question though, about this press release. They discuss the ferocity of the Humboldt, in a "ratcheting up the danger" way. However, I've seen two shows about the Humboldt squid, one on discovery and one no PBS (Nova, perhaps).

Both discussed the (apparent?) aggressive nature of the squid. However, both went on to cover divers moving out from the fishing grounds in the Sea of Cortez (I think) to get better looks at them. And in both cases, the squids didn't display an aggressive nature. They were more curious. I wonder if this film deals with that.

Wendy
 
capsfan6;77510 said:
I haven't seen this film, but I'd like to.

I have one question though, about this press release. They discuss the ferocity of the Humboldt, in a "ratcheting up the danger" way. However, I've seen two shows about the Humboldt squid, one on discovery and one no PBS (Nova, perhaps).

Both discussed the (apparent?) aggressive nature of the squid. However, both went on to cover divers moving out from the fishing grounds in the Sea of Cortez (I think) to get better looks at them. And in both cases, the squids didn't display an aggressive nature. They were more curious. I wonder if this film deals with that.

Wendy

Yup, the main diver in this movie, Scott, was interviewed in the "Killer Squid" documentary on Discovery (I haven't seen the PBS one). Scott's position was that the message of "Killer Squid" that these animals are ever not dangerous was a foolish exaggeration-- he's found that although there are times when they are not actively agressive, they are voracious pack hunters, and that the only safe way to dive with them is to be aware that they may decide to attack at any moment. They are, though, also curious and opportunistic, so they sometimes will decide a diver is more interesting than edible, but they can change their minds on that, and when there are krill around a diver's lights, he has seen them go after the krill instead of the diver. At the screening, he expressed a lot of concern that the documentaries that portray them as "gentle giants" will lead people to dive with them without taking reasonable precautions, and he believes it's likely that could cause someone to be hurt or killed. On the other hand, he does run a company that does "dive with squids" ecotourism...

He also seems to be frustrated with William Gilly's contributions to the "Killer Squid" movie. Since I met Dr. Gilly at TONMOcon last year, I tend to think Scott is overly critical, since I know Gilly's a smart, friendly, reasonable guy who knows a whole lot about Humboldts. I suspect that the producers of "Killer Squid" used some selective editing to make a documentary that some of the participants might not feel is representative of everything they said; I'm sure that applies to Scott based on what he said at the screening.

I'm hoping to do one of Scott's dive trips (with the chainmail armor) and develop my own opinion at some point... certainly, he has some anecdotal (and video) evidence that the claim that "they get frantic around the fishing boats, but they're really very peaceful when there aren't nasty fishing jigs and blood in the water" is completely wrong. Which makes sense, because these are active predators with a huge growth rate, so they need to be very agressive about eating anything they can catch, including any of their siblings that show weakness...
 

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