Sharkwater Extinction (2018) ( Rob Stewart, 2018)

Reviewed by Kaio Fadul Farkouh at the 2019 SBFF

When I decided to watch this documentary I had no idea what I was going to get. However, I can say that it really surprised me. This is a documentary directed by Rob Stewart, that if you do not know by now – he died 2 years ago. And this was his last feature film, which it shows how is the black-market for shark fins.

Through the movie, Rob and his crew/friends go to different countries/cities  like Costa Rica, Los Angeles, Miami and so goes on. His approach is, literally someone holding a camera or using drone, which brings a realism to the documentary. We can see what is really going on and we have no idea, how bad it is. And how humans can be mean, killing and selling sharks fin, which has a good price.  The feature raises a question based on its realism, “who is the real predator?”  The sound and edit of the movie shows that actually we are the predators, we are not only killing sharks but we are killing ourselves, because like Rob says, there are some victims from sharks that if we eat, can make us sick. His approach to show the contract between humans and sharks are good, we can see Robert swimming with sharks with a peaceful score, it makes me feel, that they are not the predators like everyone say they are, but we are.

At the end of it, I never thought the documentary was about his death (and I did not know about him before watching it), however; his cause is much bigger than him. The documentary is not showing how great and things he achieved, it is showing that we have to look forward and keep trying to stop the traffic of sharks. In peaceful moments underwater with the sharks to frighted moments with us human Rob delivers a good documentary with truths that we need to be aware of it. Knowing that his legacy will always be remembered, but knowing that his cause was bigger than him and we still have a lot of work to do. Like he says, “if we give up, we are dead.”