Film Review: Chasing the Thunder (2018)
Chasing the Thunder (2018) Directors Mark Benjamin and Marc Levin
© Simon Ager
This documentary deserves its own genre – the eco-thriller. It is essentially an extended, remarkably terrifying and inspiring chase filmed on the high seas, which feels like fiction. The issue being addressed is the devastating damage to our oceans and fish stocks caused by rampant illegal fishing on an industrial scale by brazen international poachers.
Poaching is a high-stakes criminal enterprise and the Thunder is considered by Interpol to be the world’s most notorious poaching vessel. The David to this Goliath (illegal fishing) is the Bob Barker aided by the Sam Simon, part of the Sea Shepherd fleet, affectionately referred to as Neptune’s Navy. They trailed and harassed the Thunder, observing and filming their illegal operations and pulling up their nets for evidence on an epic 10,000 mile chase beginning in frigid Antarctic waters and ending dramatically in the South Atlantic 110 days later when the Thunder sank to the bottom of the sea.
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, founded by Captain Paul Watson who also co-founded Greenpeace, is a pro bono civilian NGO actively enforcing laws that other countries and their navies have not prioritized or cannot afford to do. Sea Shepherd is the only obstacle to untrammeled piracy worth millions of dollars. Their only significant official ally is Interpol, which is supportive of their work but does not have a mandate to do what Sea Shepherd does. It is a global failure not to take seriously the threat that is being posed to one of the world’s major food sources.
© Simon Ager
These intrepid, dedicated activists for the ocean are largely volunteers whose commitment is phenomenal. It is physically difficult, dangerous, uncomfortable and extremely cold work. The captains are highly skilled at dangerous campaigns. During the mission that the film captures there were terrible storms with 50 foot swells, ice floes to break through and icebergs to avoid. The Thunder got aggressive when they realized they were being surveilled and almost rammed the Bob Barker.
In the end, as the Thunder is sinking, some of the crew of the Bob Barker fearlessly board the sinking ship to salvage evidence of their activities, taking ships logs, computers, photos of the catch, and barely getting to safety before the boat goes down. As this is happening the Sam Simon is bringing on board the defiant captain and crew of the Thunder. The intense emotion of the exhausted Sea Shepherd crew as they watched their prey sink into oblivion is palpable. Chasing the Thunder captures the unimaginable act of a captain purposefully sinking his own ship.
The coda of the film is the onscreen arrest of Antonio Vidal Suarez, the alleged kingpin of the illegal fishing industry in Galicia Spain, by the Spanish Guardia Civil and Interpol. Director, Mark Benjamin clearly took the advice of his executive producer, Paul Allen, who said: “Go after the big fish in the crimes against the ocean story.” Apparently, Suarez, a multimillionaire, is one of the biggest fish of all.
© Simon Ager
This level of tangible victory is rare in environmental films. These impassioned men and women are true ocean warriors who care so deeply for our oceans that this is their only reward. The importance of their work cannot be overstated. The need for major policy changes by governments to step up their own official enforcement to protect the world’s oceans is illuminated in stark and urgent terms.
The dramatic footage in this film is only part of the longer Ocean Warriors series made for the Discovery Network which was awarded best series of 2017 at the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival, in the same category as David Attenborough’s Planet Earth II. Chasing the Thunder was awarded the Impact Award at the 2018 EarthX Film Festival, Dallas Texas. The feature length documentary, a Brick City, Vulcan, Discovery production, is screening all over the world. It will be screened in NYC at IFC as part of the Pure Nonfiction series on April 30.
