Do go in the water...

This movie opens tomorrow. Go and see it. Not only is it an excellent film about sharks, I think it also has an important message about the conservation effort and the real ability each one of us has to make changes in the world.

The film wasn't preachy and it wasn't lecturing; it treated me with respect and assumed I was a grown up able to make rational, responsible decisions. In fact, I'd say the film encouraged me to be a grown up and make rational, responsible decisions because it didn't try to scare or guilt or manipulate me (Mr. Moore) into being a better person. The credit for this mature approach goes to (Canadian) filmmaker Rob Stewart who wrote, produced and directed "Sharkwater".

Stewart is unapologetically passionate about sharks and yet in his approach to dealing with the animals he is remarkably calm. Apparently, sharks are very sensitive and will (most of the time) shy away from humans because they can sense our accelerated heart rate, our fear. Stewart is able to get close to them, even touch them, because he doesn't fear them.

Stewart applies this same sense of dispassionate passion to his film, presenting us with information almost gently, leaving it to us to determine how to react. Shark fisherman are not presented as villains and conservationists aren't trumped up heroes in a war to save the shark from annihilation.

One of the core ideas presented in the film (by controversial conservationist Paul Watson ) is that the masses don't make changes; rather, it's a few individuals who feel passionately about a particular cause or idea who will make the effort necessary to push things forward. Certainly this film wouldn't exist if Stewart wasn't as passionate as he is about sharks.

And yet, after the film was over and Stewart stood up at the front of the packed theatre to answer questions, he said -- quite clearly -- that change can happen just by people talking about making a change. He didn't ask us to be passionate about sharks, he just asked us to go and tell someone about the movie. And now here I am, spreading the word.

Which takes me back to my point about what I took as one of the film's messages, to wit: be passionate. You don't have to be passionate about everything. You don't need to take all the responsibilities of the world on your shoulders. But if you're passionate about something and you let it show, your passion will infect other people and they'll help you, and vice versa.

We are stronger when we are not dependent but interdependent. And this applies not only to our relations with each other, but also to our interactions with the rest of the living creatures with whom we share this little blue ball.