Clinic Film Festival

Bob Talbot's whale and dolphin photographs have inspired wonder in people around the world for over two decades, and he has been an active cinematographer for over a dozen years. From the first time he ventured into the ocean with a snorkel at age eight, Talbot has been fascinated by the sea and the animals that inhabit it. Since that time he has made it his life's work to foster a respect for animals and to fight to protect their habitat. He is the recipient of The Environmental Hero Award presented by the United States Department of Commerce as well as the Ark Trust Genesis Award. As a respected filmmaker, Bob directed and photographed the IMAX film Ocean Men-Extreme Dive, and is working on a 3D film for the giant IMAX screen. He filmed the wildlife sequences for the feature films Free Willy and Flipper. He directed and photographed the IMAX® RidefilmTM motion simulation system film, Dolphins-The Ride and acted as director and cinematographer for sequences in the Academy Award nominated MacGillivray Freeman IMAX® film, Dolphins. Talbot's photographs have been published in magazines such as Audubon, Time, Natural History, American Photographer, National Wildlife, Outdoor Photographer, BBC Wildlife and National Geographic, as well as numerous other publications.

Roger Hanlon has made over 5,000 research dives during his 30 years as a marine biologist. He was inspired first when an octopus on a coral reef in Panama scared him out of his wits during his junior year in college. He survived that experience - and an athletic scholarship - to receive a B.S. in Biology at Florida State. He obtained MS and PhD degrees from the U. of Miami, and conducted a postdoctoral fellowship at Cambridge Field work combined with lab experimentation has helped to satisfy his continuing curiosity about how cephalopods survive and thrive in an ocean dominated by fishes and mammals. Since 1995 he has been at the nation’s oldest marine laboratory, the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, first as the Director, and now as a Senior Scientist in the Marine Resources Center. His underwater video that he will present - often seen on television - attests to the beauty and sophistication of these marvelous marine invertebrates. The Harry Potter    “invisibility cloak” is a Hollywood illusion, but biology has forged something better: nature’s most dynamic color change artist, the cephalopod.  The 3-dimensional illusions of color, pattern and texture produced by the squids, octopuses and cuttlefish amazing “smart skin” involve some of the most sophisticated visual tricks known to science. The raw beauty and functionality of this skin – and its lightning fast changeability – will be highlighted in some extremely rare, and fascinating footage from around the world.

Stan Waterman, long considered the dean of underwater cinematography, has been at the forefront of SCUBA diving since its inception as a recreational sport in the early 1950’s. His attraction to the underwater world started as a schoolboy in 1936 when he first dove with a Japanese AMA diver’s mask in Florida. His first 16mm film on diving ws produced during his early years of diving in the Bahamas, and for the next 15 years, he continue to record his world wide journeys on film, and perfect his craft. In 1968, he collaborated with Peter Gimbel on the classic shark film, “Blue Water, White Death”. In 1977, he was the co-director of underwater photography for the Hollywood blockbuster, “The Deep”. His beautiful images and eloquent speaking style have made Stan one of the most beloved underwater filmmakers of our time. After more than five decades of exploration and discovery, Stan continues to travel around the world, leading dive trips to exotic locales, and capturing exciting marine encounters underwater. We are delighted to welcome him back to the evening show so that he can share footage from one of his most recent encounters, simply entitled, “Day of the Tiger”

Chuck Davis has worked as a specialist in filming on, under and around the ocean and other aquatic environments, from the freezing climes of Antarctica and Greenland to the heat and humidity of the Amazon. Chuck holds degrees in fisheries biology from U. Mass and in filmmaking from the Brooks Institute of Photographic Art and Science. He has over 30 years active diving experience in worldwide locations, and the main thrust in his personal work is helping to stimulate marine environmental awareness and conservation via the use of marine and underwater imagery. Chuck has worked as a director of photography and/or camera operator on several IMAX feature documentaries such as Ring Of Fire (undersea lava scenes), Search For The Great Sharks, the Academy Award-nominated Alaska: Spirit Of The Wild, Whales, The Greatest Places, and Amazing Journeys. Davis worked as an underwater camera operator on the Warner Brothers feature film, Sphere and his production experience includes work on C.L.I.O. Award-winning commercials and CINE Golden Eagle Award-winning documentaries. He is currently working as director of photography for a new one-hour PBS television documentary about gray whales which is being produced by Jean-Michel Cousteau. Davis' other assignments have included some 17 filming expeditions worldwide for the Cousteau Society television programs as a cameraman aboard vessels Alcyone, Calypso, and special flying teams. For other U.S. and foreign producers he has filmed for ABC, CBS, PBS and Discovery/Learning Channel network documentaries as well as theatrical movies and television commercials.

Jill Heinerth is a world-renown cave explorer and an award winning filmmaker. Her curiosity and photographic skills give us a tantalizing peek at a breathtaking world few will ever experience. Best known as a pioneering technical diver, Jill combines a mastery of underwater technology with a formal Fine Arts education to produce artistic documentation of the natural environment above, below and inside our planet. As a filmmaker, Jill wrote, produced, and appeared in Water’s Journey, the PBS documentary series that takes viewers on visceral travels through the world’s greatest water systems. Hollywood directors call on her to produce difficult underwater scenes and international magazines and websites look to her to document extreme environments with high technology. Jill is a reasonable voice in the world of conservation, and is often sought out for insightful opinions by the press. She is a recognized expert legal witness in matters involving SCUBA and Closed Circuit Rebreather technology. Jill’s many diving accomplishments are highlighted by an Antarctic cave diving expedition inside the largest iceberg known to man, (National Geographic - Ice Island), and significant contributions to the United States Deep Caving Team’s Wakulla 2 project, using paradigm-changing technology to map an underwater cave system in three dimensions. At Wakulla, secondary to a scientific mission, Jill established a women’s diving world record.