From Friday 15 to Sunday 17 September 2023, the 4th edition of the Discovery Paris Shark Week took place under the skies of the 17th arrondissement of the City of Light. Covered by the celest wolf, Shark friend perched in the heights of its native Pyrenees, the event hosted by The Star Club featured world premieres of documentary and fiction feature films as well as novel films in France. As captivating as it is, these three days spent with the King of the Oceans will have made it possible to raise public awareness of sharks and the ecological cause while inviting them to take on and embrace their deep fears...
Contents
Immersion
Supported by the true legend of ecology Paul Watson, this fourth edition saw the succession of films (including documentary films), exhibitors and lectures within the Club de l ́étoile, an atypical cinema room with a cosy and chic atmosphere with high-end audio and visual reproduction equipment. Moreover, it is in this space for conviviality, arranged in the style of the great transatlantics, that I was able to make beautiful and many encounters...
The director and great squale enthusiast Fabien Delage, nothing less than the creator of the Paris Shark Fest in 2020 (now known as Discovery Paris Shark Week), members of the association Sharks Mission France whose creator and president Fabienne Rossier, the man behind the stories of the youth collection Captain Paul (based on the main campaigns of the environmental association) Sea Shepherd), David Ribet alias Gropapapa, and I'm passing by.
During these three days, in addition to the Sharksploitation sessions, the six documentaries in competition (Great White Shark Babies, Alien Sharks: Strange New Worlds, Jaws vs. the Meg, Jungle Sharks, Attaking Life, Sharksploitation) and the three conferences (Squalophobia, Sea Shepherd Origins, At the heart of shark fin trade and European institutions) were also there to recall the essential role of sharks in the health of the oceans.
Indispensable to the balance of the food chain, however, this super marine predator is threatened since in 30 years man has exterminated more than three billion sharks. Today, almost 100 million sharks are caught for their fins each year and 1/3 of the 465 species are threatened with extinction. The preservation of sharks, responsible for less than 10 deaths a year (mosquitoes kill 80,000 times more), is a global issue and it is our duty to protect and ensure the survival of sharks. Without them, the balance of the ocean is in danger... And it's our oceans that make 50% air that we breathe!
And before you leave with the charts and the Sharksploitation sessions, a little word about the short film Tigereyes director, photographer and artist Martina Trepczyk, beautiful film (that's little to say) about a veiled woman diving with sharks that invites a powerful sociological and cultural reflection in just 12 minutes! A discovery filled with emotions projected before Alien Sharks: Strange New Worlds.
Awards
The public and the jury (composed of the biologist and shark expert) Pedro Lopez Alegret, Architect and Doctor of Science Nicolas Gilsoul, director and chief operator underwater Pierre-Etienne Larrous and the diver and apneist Anne-Sophie Muraud) decided to devote the documentary film Sharksploitation of the Stephen Scarlata, known as the producer of Jodorowskys Dune.
A triumph more than deserved both this documentary dedicated to the History of shark films explores this subgenre in depth by involving many authors and directors who have already treated the subject as (to name but a few) Roger Corman (Sharktopus), Joe Dante (Piranhas) and Johannes Roberts (47 Meters Down). One « diving » As exciting as it is instructive!
Sharksploitation meetings
Speaking of Sharksploitation, sub-genre of the exploitation film that emerged following the success of the Teeth of the sea (1975), focusing on the eight feature films broadcast during the festival... And I'm telling you, they weren't missing a bite!
Doll Shark
European first
Directed by: Mark Polonia
USA / 2023 / 77 min / VOSTFR
The director Mark Polonia (Cocaine Shark, Sharkula, Noahs Shark) comes back with the most absurd shark film of the year. Doll Shark tells the story of a stuffed shark on the first harmless approaches. But in fact, it turns out to be possessed by the evil spirit of a killer shark.
A teddy shark possessed with a voracious appetite, amateur actors who give out crazy dialogues, a « staging » worthy of Dad's video memory, fake TV programs because why not, a cliché-on-legged investigator who wears his sunglasses and fake fittings you want, for this cotton nanar where absurd situations and gore of ketchup share the crime scene. The Polonias hit again! 🦈
Teeth of the Sea, Part 2
New new 4K master in cinema
Directed by: Jeannot Szwarc
USA / 1978 / 116 min / VOSTFR
Four years after the attacks of the great white shark on Amity Island, two divers photographing the wreckage of Orca are attacked and devoured by another large squale. For 45 years of age Jaws 2Immerse yourself in the dangerous waters of Amity...
Lovely B series of teenage flesh, this suite where the terrible threat of the depths roaming in the waters of the beach resort of Amity Island is certainly not the masterpiece of carnassier of Spielberg, but a devilly effective suite whose vented surprise effect is replaced by memorable attacks and a Roy Scheider Still so comfortable in his Brody suit. 🦈🦈🦈
Puppet Shark
European first
Directed by: Brett Kelly
USA / 2022 / 68 min / VOSTFR
The ultimate « masterpiece » of the Brett Kelly (Yesja Shark, Raiders of the Lost Shark), a shark flick made with puppets. Mixing Muppets and Jaws, this comedy of a new genre will surprise more than one.
As she swims in the direction of her silky-haired snack, this satirical anthology made with three pieces of string sees, in joy and good mood, a mermaid in the grip of a mac shark, junkies feeding a large white marshmallows, a dentist adept with dental threads taking care of the jaw of a squale with bad breath and passing by. It doesn't make any sense, but we're laughing like a whale! 🦈🦈
In troubled waters
Meg Night
Director: Jon Turteltaub
USA / 2018 / 116 min / VOSTFR
Missioned by an international program to observe underwater life, a submersible is attacked by a gigantic creature thought to have disappeared. Team up and start a survival fight with Jason Statham and a prehistoric shark over 20 meters.
Jason Statham vs. Megalodon, it's kind of the program. « harpooning » of this blockbuster all public. And if he avoids any bloodbathing (the peeling machine does not eat much in the end), he perfectly ensures entertainment with his muscular sequences and impressive special effects. Bite the hook! 🦈🦈🦈
In very disturbed waters
Meg Night
Directed by: Ben Wheatley
USA / 2023 / 113 min / VOSTFR
Undersea exploration in the depths of the ocean turns into chaos when malicious mining threatens the mission and forces the research team to embark on a perilous battle for survival.
If she escapes from the shipwreck by little thanks to her climax over the top Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus) on the island of fun, this sequel even more WTF still remains a false ad (megalodons were more present at the promo than in the film) put in box by an AI passing for Ben Wheatley. Shit and barred with visual weakness, this Die Hard which only comes out of the water too late is a huge disappointment. So no, hunger doesn't justify the means! 🦈🦈
Teeth of the Sea 3-D
Restored version projected in 3D anaglyph
Directed by: Joe Alves
USA / 1983 / 100 min / VOSTFR
For his 40th birthday, the most cheezy episode of the franchise is screened for the first time in 3D with the famous red and blue glasses expensive in the 80s. In « The Undersea Kingdom » From SeaWorld in Florida, legend becomes reality!
More attraction of leisure parks than cinematographic work, this 3rd opus with the attractive idea of starting quickly takes water and has great difficulty not to sink. From his static staging to his casting at the discount, to his little voracious giant shark and soft attacks, he is only worth his entry ticket for the stereoscopic show (the film was captured in Arrivision 3D) generously demonstrative (except in anaglyph) that he offers. Needless to say, in its flat version (with the tricks all the more blazing), this episode can only sink! 🦈🦈
Sharknado
Unpublished in the Hall
Directed by: Anthony C. Ferrante
USA / 2013 / 84 min / VOSTFR
A tornado formed off Mexico leads to the invasion of Los Angeles by sharks. The owner of a beach-side drink and his friends face the threat. The most cult of television nanars celebrates its 10 years on a large screen.
Previous to a huge buzz Barbie), this production The Asylum to the concept as stupid as improbable based on disproportionate tornadoes filled with hungry sharks is surprisingly well kept his promises, and squeezes like a cartoonesque nanar dreadfully fun where the WTF scenes (the sharks that swim between cars, the hero who kills the squales with a revolver while they are in the air and who cuts one in two with the help of a chainsaw, the rescue of the children on the bus, the shark-marteau that crushes a passerby, the final with the helicopter) never devoid of blood, the enthusiastic actors, the dubious special effects and the false rigolo connections (the level of water is never the same, the sky passes from one plan to the other from clear to covered, the vehicles circulate in the background as if nothing were ever) will fill the nanardeux and/or the curious. A real guilty pleasure! 🦈🌪️
Jurassic Shark 3: Seavenge
European first
Directed by: Mark Polonia
USA / 2023 / 70 min / VOSTFR
You're gonna die... laughing at the third opus of the super low budget franchise Jurassic Shark. A journalist, a cameraman and thieves are trapped in a boat on the ocean. The only thing that separates them from the shore is a prehistoric shark 15 meters long.
Z of the worst effect where « actors » lost at sea (a few meters from the shore) are confronted with a very timid prehistoric shark (mix of frickin' CGI and plastic toys) while the (courageous) spectators must support them and stuff themselves with TV bulletins at any point of time. Fortunately, Sharkenstein Come and fuck the boxon at the end! Polonia at her worst... Or at his best depending on your mood of the moment. 🦈
Very nice summary article with a nice perspective of the festival. You feel the regressive pleasure on some Z series, I love it!
It was really great, I enjoyed it!
I would have accompanied you well but it was the race with the school year, the trips, the return of the Gamescom and the FEFFS that announced!
All memories... cinematic! Thank you for this beautiful article!
Thank you for reading us!
The Teeth of the Sea 3, the film that started my phobia of sharks and depths... :-S
[...] After the 4th edition of Discovery Paris Shark Week! by the celest wolf [...]