At the Edge of the World Premiere and NY TIMES review

In the winter of 2007, RTC Director Tim Gorski and 4 other filmmakers teamed up with Dan Stone of Endeavor Media and traveled to the icy waters of Antarctica to film the epic documentary that sparked Animal Planet's Whale Wars. The resulting film has gone on to receive five festival awards.

The 3rd Antarctic Campaign undertaken by the controversial Sea Shepherd Conservation Society was arguably "the perfect combination of imperfections" and the actions taken to stop a Japanese whaling fleet were astonishingly reckless and admirable.

The international volunteer crew, though under-trained and poorly equipped, has developed a combination of bizarre and brilliant tactics with which to stop the whalers.

But first they must find the Japanese ships, a far more difficult challenge than ever imagined — long-time activist Paul Watson and first-time captain Alex Cornelissen employ an array of strategies in the hopes of finding an elusive adversary in the 370,000 square miles of the Ross Sea.

With one ship (The Farley Mowat) too slow to chase down the whaling fleet, with their second ship (The Robert Hunter) unsuited for Antarctic ice conditions and with no country supporting their efforts to enforce international law, the situation becomes increasingly desperate in this real-life David-vs.-Goliath adventure.

NYTIMES Review,

At the Edge of the World (2008)

Avast, Eco-Pirates, Here Be Whalers

 

By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS
Published: August 28, 2009

In late November 2006, a documentary crew accompanied 46 international volunteers from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society as they embarked on their third Antarctic campaign to stop Japanese whaling. What emerged was “At the Edge of the World,” an intrepid record of modern-day piracy and the high-stakes battle between commerce and ecological survival.

Tracking the whaling fleet (which slips through a loophole in the conservation laws to kill and process close to a thousand whales each season) over the glorious vastness of the Ross Sea, the crews of the two Sea Shepherd vessels face crippling seasickness and deadly ice packs. Tedium is mitigated by the frigid beauty of their surroundings (captured in breathtaking frames by no fewer than seven sure-footed cinematographers) and regular safety drills.

“Is there a sign for ‘man overboard’ ?” wonders one anxious volunteer, clearly anticipating the risks of an enterprise committed to fouling Japanese propellers and perfecting a maneuver cheekily named “the can-opener.”

Directed by Dan Stone to highlight moral as well as legal conflicts, this strikingly humane film may function as a prequel to Animal Planet’s “Whale Wars” but is light years ahead in visual clarity and narrative ambition. Within its ice-encrusted borders, the story evolves naturally — a missing boat, a grinding collision — without the prompting of a narrator. And as we watch a lone Sea Shepherd clinging to the back of a harpooned whale, we understand a resolve that will not quit until the killing ends.

“At the Edge of the World” is rated PG (Parental guidance suggested). Unsafe tactics and safe insults.

AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD

Opens on Friday in Manhattan.

Produced and directed by Dan Stone; directors of photography, Daniel Fernandez, Tim Gorski, Simeon Houtman, James Joyner, Jonathan Kane, Mathieu Mauvernay and John Odebralski; edited by Patrick Gambuti Jr.; music by Jeff Gibbs, Gordy Haab and Tierro Lee; released by Wealth Effect Media. At the Cinema Village, 22 East 12th Street, Greenwich Village. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes.