Woods Hole Film Festival 2009

The historic story about the search for the elusive great white shark by daring divers and filmmakers created first-ever 35mm footage and documentary film of this magnificent creature. In 1969, armed with only their cameras made specially for this film, underwater adventurer and director Peter Gimbel, world renown shark and underwater experts Ron and Valerie Taylor and underwater cinematography expert Stan Waterman, set out on a 12,000-mile journey to study and film this powerful predator in its natural habitat. They followed whaling ships in the Indian Ocean expecting the fresh kill to lure the Great White from the depths - their only protection-frail aluminum cages.

The hunt extended from Africa to Australia-from spring into summer. Thousands of sharks were sighted and photographed-every one a proven predator-but they did not confront the Great White until Dangerous Reef, off the coast of South Australia. In one of the highlights of the film all of the divers leave the shark cages to swim with dozens of deadly White Tip sharks as they feed.

This is the story of that hunt and finally of the awesome encounter between man and the most deadly and breathtaking creature of the sea - The Great White Shark.

Their aluminum cages, one with bars that were bent by the awesome power of the shark will be on display at the Festival. The re-launch of this film will include a panel discussion with some of the original crew and a chance to see a beautifully remastered version of the film projected in high definition.