The Dark Side of the Ocean (Rosenthal, 2015): USA

Reviewed by Wayne Derossett.  Viewed at the 2016 Santa Barbara Film Festival in the Metro 2 theater, Thurs, Feb. 11 at 5:20 PM.

In this well-attended screening at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, was notable explorer and oceanographer, Jean-Michel Cousteau of the Santa Barbara Ocean Futures Society.

Expertly filmed using some of the latest low-light underwater cameras, Rick Rosenthal’s most recent work, The Dark Side of the Ocean captures a largely unseen view of a world hidden in the pelagic ocean depths.  Every night, billions of creatures arrive in the world’s largest migration to feed and return to the depths to avoid daytime surface predators.

Rick Rosenthal has over 30 years of underwater filming experience.  Parts of this film were captured aboard Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Research Vessel Rachel Carson, but other footage was obtained using nothing more than a Hobie kayak.

While making this documentary, he discovered that filming the migration of these creatures can be elusive.  He later found the layer in which many of these creatures hide in is at a depth with one-percent of the surface illumination, which varies with the lunar cycle as it goes through its phases.  To film close enough to the surface to allow standard SCUBA gear, it required careful planning and a dark, moonless night.

Can you imagine diving into the deep, surrounded by nothing but miles of cold ocean water, sometimes alone, in the dark?  And to do it often enough to capture rare images of elusive sea creatures during their ephemeral visit?  Or to jump into the middle of a feeding frenzy to film the chaos of ocean predators?

He was fortunate enough, and persistent enough to film many of the bio-luminescent creatures that roam these waters using their own light source to find prey.  He also used underwater lighting gear to illuminate the creatures that don’t emit light.  Included in his imagery are deep sea viper fish, tiburonia jellyfish, long tentacled medusa, red body jellyfish and more, he even filmed some species unknown to science. The film captures images of a juvenile sailfish never seen before.

This remarkable film-making effort provides a glimpse into a deep hidden world and is without parallel.  I highly recommend seeing this film.