Documentary filmmaker Drew Xanthopoulos started reading about whale cognition, culture and communication around four years ago, and was blown away by what he found.
“It was stranger than any science fiction I’d ever read or watched on the screen,” Xanthopoulos says. “It occurred to me that if I’m having this much of an emotional effect from reading about the science, surely the people who are out there on boats for months and months doing the work, it must be profound for them.”
So he started attending whale research conferences, where he met Michelle Fournet (pictured above right) and Ellen Garland, the subjects of his latest documentary “Fathom.” The film follows the two researchers out into the field as the former attempts to have a conversation with humpback whales, while the latter pieces together how whale song travels across vast swathes of ocean.
Variety caught up with Xanthopoulos ahead of the film’s U.
“It was stranger than any science fiction I’d ever read or watched on the screen,” Xanthopoulos says. “It occurred to me that if I’m having this much of an emotional effect from reading about the science, surely the people who are out there on boats for months and months doing the work, it must be profound for them.”
So he started attending whale research conferences, where he met Michelle Fournet (pictured above right) and Ellen Garland, the subjects of his latest documentary “Fathom.” The film follows the two researchers out into the field as the former attempts to have a conversation with humpback whales, while the latter pieces together how whale song travels across vast swathes of ocean.
Variety caught up with Xanthopoulos ahead of the film’s U.
- 8/21/2021
- by Will Thorne
- Variety Film + TV
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
Come True (Anthony Scott Burns)
The darkened screen is almost pitch black before we can begin to discern shapes in the distance. First it’s wooden stakes in the ground at what looks to be a trailhead of sorts. Next it’s a mountain in the distance. Finally we come to a door that swings open as though we’ve been placed inside a videogame merging the puzzle mechanics of Myst with the brooding aesthetic of Hellraiser only to continue moving forward towards a bald figure with back turned—unmoving and foreboding with a mysterious air that can conjure nothing besides dread. And suddenly it’s over with a cut to Sarah (Julia Sarah Stone) awakening from a nightmare, bundled inside a...
Come True (Anthony Scott Burns)
The darkened screen is almost pitch black before we can begin to discern shapes in the distance. First it’s wooden stakes in the ground at what looks to be a trailhead of sorts. Next it’s a mountain in the distance. Finally we come to a door that swings open as though we’ve been placed inside a videogame merging the puzzle mechanics of Myst with the brooding aesthetic of Hellraiser only to continue moving forward towards a bald figure with back turned—unmoving and foreboding with a mysterious air that can conjure nothing besides dread. And suddenly it’s over with a cut to Sarah (Julia Sarah Stone) awakening from a nightmare, bundled inside a...
- 6/25/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Dr. Ellen Garland listens to a whale song near the islands of French Polynesia in the south Pacific, in the documentary Fathom.
Courtesy of Apple TV+
Fathom is a word that can mean a measurement of sea depth or a struggle to understand a difficult or enigmatic subject. Both meanings apply in Fathom, visually beautiful documentary about scientists trying to understand whales’ songs, filled with stunning images of rolling seas, rocky shores, and solitary scientists lit by the glow of a screen as they pour over their data.
There is a sense of being immersed in the scientists world of whale research, more like in a mystery film than a documentary. Director/cinematographer Drew Xanthopoulos’ Fathom is shot in a style more typical of a narrative film, perhaps even mystery, with partially-shaded lighting, artistic framing and warm tones. This visual style gives the documentary a uniqueness, as well as immediately...
Courtesy of Apple TV+
Fathom is a word that can mean a measurement of sea depth or a struggle to understand a difficult or enigmatic subject. Both meanings apply in Fathom, visually beautiful documentary about scientists trying to understand whales’ songs, filled with stunning images of rolling seas, rocky shores, and solitary scientists lit by the glow of a screen as they pour over their data.
There is a sense of being immersed in the scientists world of whale research, more like in a mystery film than a documentary. Director/cinematographer Drew Xanthopoulos’ Fathom is shot in a style more typical of a narrative film, perhaps even mystery, with partially-shaded lighting, artistic framing and warm tones. This visual style gives the documentary a uniqueness, as well as immediately...
- 6/25/2021
- by Cate Marquis
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Fathom is a visually striking, profound new documentary that studies the communication between humpback whales. Directed by Drew Xanthopoulos, the film is decoding the language amongst animal species, in what is a fascinating piece of filmmaking. We had the pleasure of speaking to Xanthopoulos, to discuss the making of this project, working alongside Dr. Michelle Fournet and Dr. Ellen Garland, and on the revelation that different species have different cultures. Consider our minds blown.
Watch the full interview with Drew Xanthopoulos here:
Synopsis
Fathom is a visual and aural wonder of a documentary that follows researchers working to finally decode the communication of humpback whales. With Dr. Michelle Fournet, Dr. Ellen Garland.
Fathom premieres globally on Apple TV+ on 25 June.
The post Drew Xanthopoulos on Apple TV+’s documentary Fathom, and how animal species have different cultures appeared first on HeyUGuys.
Watch the full interview with Drew Xanthopoulos here:
Synopsis
Fathom is a visual and aural wonder of a documentary that follows researchers working to finally decode the communication of humpback whales. With Dr. Michelle Fournet, Dr. Ellen Garland.
Fathom premieres globally on Apple TV+ on 25 June.
The post Drew Xanthopoulos on Apple TV+’s documentary Fathom, and how animal species have different cultures appeared first on HeyUGuys.
- 6/24/2021
- by Stefan Pape
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
No matter how difficult the topic, a great documentary keeps the audience invested in the stakes at hand through both form and content while elucidating some measure of substantial information about the subject. Simply put, they make us care for people, histories, conflicts, or natural occurrences that might have been foreign to us before walking into the theater or pressing play. Failure to do so renders the film closer to a dull scholarly lesson.
For all its serene water vistas, “Fathom,” from director Drew Xanthopoulos, falls into the latter category. The story of two scientists separately investigating the meaning and patterns of the sounds humpback whales emit is caught in an indecisive dilemma: It begrudgingly tries to make a point, with just a couple lines of dialogue, about the stoicism the field demands of women, even though it’s obvious the film’s sole focus is on the research they are carrying out.
For all its serene water vistas, “Fathom,” from director Drew Xanthopoulos, falls into the latter category. The story of two scientists separately investigating the meaning and patterns of the sounds humpback whales emit is caught in an indecisive dilemma: It begrudgingly tries to make a point, with just a couple lines of dialogue, about the stoicism the field demands of women, even though it’s obvious the film’s sole focus is on the research they are carrying out.
- 6/17/2021
- by Carlos Aguilar
- The Wrap
Drew Xanthopoulos directs the film launching June 25 on Apple TV+
This Earth Day, the scientists in the documentary trailer “Fathom” are hoping they can learn to speak whale. And not like in the “Finding Nemo” sense.
“Fathom” shows a team of scientists using sound waves in an attempt to communicate with a pod of humpback whales. Whales, they explain, are a species that pre-date mankind by millions of years, and understanding the ways in which they communicate with each other deep beneath the surface of the ocean could reveal wonders.
“Studying whale culture might be more about glimpsing something about ourselves, how we can connect differently a million years from now,” one scientist says in the trailer.
Also Read:
Why ‘Fireball’ Producer Sandbox Films Doesn’t Need Talking Heads to Make Smart Science Documentaries
“Fathom” is directed and photographed by Drew Xanthopoulos (“The Sensitives”) and follows Dr. Ellen Garland and Dr.
This Earth Day, the scientists in the documentary trailer “Fathom” are hoping they can learn to speak whale. And not like in the “Finding Nemo” sense.
“Fathom” shows a team of scientists using sound waves in an attempt to communicate with a pod of humpback whales. Whales, they explain, are a species that pre-date mankind by millions of years, and understanding the ways in which they communicate with each other deep beneath the surface of the ocean could reveal wonders.
“Studying whale culture might be more about glimpsing something about ourselves, how we can connect differently a million years from now,” one scientist says in the trailer.
Also Read:
Why ‘Fireball’ Producer Sandbox Films Doesn’t Need Talking Heads to Make Smart Science Documentaries
“Fathom” is directed and photographed by Drew Xanthopoulos (“The Sensitives”) and follows Dr. Ellen Garland and Dr.
- 4/22/2021
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
New projects also selected from Oscar nominees and a Venice-winning duo.
Cph:dox has unveiled the 34 projects set to be presented at Cph:forum, its financing and co-production event from March 24-26.
Scroll down for full list of titles and descriptions
The selection includes new projects from Oscar-nominated Laura Nix (Walk Run Cha-Cha) and Talal Derki (Of Fathers And Sons), Berlinale winner Adina Pintilie (Touch Me Not), Sundance winners Jialing Zhang (Born In China) and Ra’anan Alexandrowicz (The Law in These Parts) and Venice winning team Elwira Niewiera and Piotr Rosolowski (The Prince and the Dybbuk).
Titles include Her, a documentary about...
Cph:dox has unveiled the 34 projects set to be presented at Cph:forum, its financing and co-production event from March 24-26.
Scroll down for full list of titles and descriptions
The selection includes new projects from Oscar-nominated Laura Nix (Walk Run Cha-Cha) and Talal Derki (Of Fathers And Sons), Berlinale winner Adina Pintilie (Touch Me Not), Sundance winners Jialing Zhang (Born In China) and Ra’anan Alexandrowicz (The Law in These Parts) and Venice winning team Elwira Niewiera and Piotr Rosolowski (The Prince and the Dybbuk).
Titles include Her, a documentary about...
- 2/13/2020
- by 1100453¦Michael Rosser¦9¦
- ScreenDaily
The Tribeca Film Festival is still in full swing (it’s long!), and one film that’s worth keeping an eye on is the documentary “The Sensitives,” which screens tonight. Directed by cinematographer-turned-helmer Drew Xanthopoulos, it might remind you of a real-life version of Todd Haynes’ “Safe” in that it focuses on a group of people who have become near-allergic to the outside world, and the woman who tries to help them.
Continue reading Tribeca Exclusive: Clip & Poster For The ‘Safe’-Like Documentary ‘The Sensitives’ at The Playlist.
Continue reading Tribeca Exclusive: Clip & Poster For The ‘Safe’-Like Documentary ‘The Sensitives’ at The Playlist.
- 4/26/2017
- by The Playlist
- The Playlist
Anyone who’s been watching Michael McKean’s character on Better Call Saul will recognize the affliction Drew Xanthopoulos investigates in The Sensitives, a documentary so affecting and effective it will make viewers feel grateful they are healthy enough to see it in a theater. The film profiles several sufferers of a medical condition that induces a hypersensitivity to one’s environment. Its victims endure adverse effects to electricity, cellular signals, fragrances, chemicals, you name it, and the exposure often leaves them debilitated. The Sensitives, which recently received its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, gives much-needed attention to a rare illness,...
- 4/25/2017
- by Frank Scheck
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
You could call it the “Netflix effect.” With the rise of the global VOD giant and its increasingly voracious appetite for nonfiction films, the documentary industry is anticipating a busy spring season at the Tribeca Film Festival and Hot Docs, North America’s largest documentary festival and marketplace.
But it’s not just Netflix, say industry insiders. The number of active buyers for documentary films suggests there’s an enthusiasm for independent nonfiction cinema that goes beyond the VOD giant.
On the eve of Tribeca, three high-profile documentaries have already found buyers: National Geographic acquired the coal-mining expose “From the Ashes,” and Gravitas Ventures bought theatrical and streaming rights to two films already partnering with CNN Films: “Elian,” the story of Cuban child émigré Elian Gonzalez, and Impact Partners’ “The Reagan Show,” a freshly relevant archival-driven doc about the staging of the former President.
Read More: Netflix’s Big New...
But it’s not just Netflix, say industry insiders. The number of active buyers for documentary films suggests there’s an enthusiasm for independent nonfiction cinema that goes beyond the VOD giant.
On the eve of Tribeca, three high-profile documentaries have already found buyers: National Geographic acquired the coal-mining expose “From the Ashes,” and Gravitas Ventures bought theatrical and streaming rights to two films already partnering with CNN Films: “Elian,” the story of Cuban child émigré Elian Gonzalez, and Impact Partners’ “The Reagan Show,” a freshly relevant archival-driven doc about the staging of the former President.
Read More: Netflix’s Big New...
- 4/18/2017
- by Anthony Kaufman
- Indiewire
Now in its sixteenth year, New York City’s own Tribeca Film Festival kicks off every spring with a wide variety of programming on offer, from an ever-expanding Vr installation to an enviable television lineup, but the bread and butter of the annual festival is still in its film slate. This year’s festival offers up plenty of returning favorites with new projects, alongside fresh faces itching to break out. From insightful documentaries to fanciful features, with a heavy dose of Gotham-centric films (hey, it is Tribeca after all), there’s plenty to dive into here, so we’ve culled the schedule for a few surefire hits.
This year’s Tribeca Film Festival takes place April 20 – 30. Check out some of our must-see picks below.
Read More: Why ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Is the Most Anticipated Screening of the Tribeca Film Festival
“A Gray State”
It might be the craziest story...
This year’s Tribeca Film Festival takes place April 20 – 30. Check out some of our must-see picks below.
Read More: Why ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Is the Most Anticipated Screening of the Tribeca Film Festival
“A Gray State”
It might be the craziest story...
- 4/17/2017
- by Indiewire Staff
- Indiewire
With three new films on the horizon, I sat down with cinematographer Drew Xanthopoulos in the week leading up to the Berlinale World Premiere of Discreet. As part of the producing team of Discreet, I know the film intimately, and knowing also that Xanthopoulos had lensed three wildly different, challenging films in the last year alone, I wanted to learn more about how he creatively approaches his craft and new projects. (In addition to Discreet, Travis Matthews’s stark, carefully composed and mysterious thriller, he has shot Kyle Henry’s upcoming drama Rogers Park, about couples struggling to keep their love alive. […]...
- 4/6/2017
- by Chris Ohlson
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Festival receives record number of submissions as top brass trim roster by 20%.
World premieres of Michael Winterbottom’s The Trip To Spain (pictured), Nick Broomfield and Rudi Dolezal’s Whitney. “can I be me,”, and Hell On Earth: The Fall Of Syria And The Rise Of Isis by Sebastian Junger and Nick Quested are among the line-up at the 16th annual Tribeca Film Festival (April 19-30).
Festival top brass led by new director of programming Cara Cusumano and artistic director Frédéric Boyer unveiled on Thursday 82 of the 98 features that will screen at this year’s edition.
Trimmed down by 20%, the festival received a record number 8,700 submissions, of which 3,362 were features – and includes 32 films in competition comprising 12 documentaries, 10 Us narratives and 10 international narratives. Films in competition will compete for cash prizes totalling $160,000.
Spotlight Narrative section features 15 fiction films, while Spotlight Documentary includes 16 non-fiction films. Five fiction and one documentary film play in Midnight.
The 2017 roster...
World premieres of Michael Winterbottom’s The Trip To Spain (pictured), Nick Broomfield and Rudi Dolezal’s Whitney. “can I be me,”, and Hell On Earth: The Fall Of Syria And The Rise Of Isis by Sebastian Junger and Nick Quested are among the line-up at the 16th annual Tribeca Film Festival (April 19-30).
Festival top brass led by new director of programming Cara Cusumano and artistic director Frédéric Boyer unveiled on Thursday 82 of the 98 features that will screen at this year’s edition.
Trimmed down by 20%, the festival received a record number 8,700 submissions, of which 3,362 were features – and includes 32 films in competition comprising 12 documentaries, 10 Us narratives and 10 international narratives. Films in competition will compete for cash prizes totalling $160,000.
Spotlight Narrative section features 15 fiction films, while Spotlight Documentary includes 16 non-fiction films. Five fiction and one documentary film play in Midnight.
The 2017 roster...
- 3/2/2017
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Childhood abuse affects its victims in myriad and often abstract ways. The disparate images and mysterious female voiceover that provide Travis Mathews’ “Discreet” its illusory opening do eventually come together, like the concentric cycles of abuse and pain experienced by its woeful protagonist, Alex (Jonny Mars).
A drifter and filmmaker, Alex travels the country in a dark blue van shooting footage of highways. On a passing visit to his unstable mother, he learns that the man who abused him is living in a small cabin on the outskirts of the rural Texas town where his mother lives. Seeking out the older man, Alex finds a severely incapacitated John (Bab Swaffar), complete with an involuntary twitch in his left arm and a vacant stare.
John is a ghoulish cartoon of a predator; even in his weakened state, his fluffy white beard, ruddy red nose, and lanky frame tower over Alex. Facing...
A drifter and filmmaker, Alex travels the country in a dark blue van shooting footage of highways. On a passing visit to his unstable mother, he learns that the man who abused him is living in a small cabin on the outskirts of the rural Texas town where his mother lives. Seeking out the older man, Alex finds a severely incapacitated John (Bab Swaffar), complete with an involuntary twitch in his left arm and a vacant stare.
John is a ghoulish cartoon of a predator; even in his weakened state, his fluffy white beard, ruddy red nose, and lanky frame tower over Alex. Facing...
- 2/19/2017
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
On the heels of the 39th edition of the Toronto Int. Film Festival (Sept 4-14), Ifp’s Independent Film Week is where a plethora of fiction, non-fiction and new this year, web-based series from the likes of Desiree Akhavan and Calvin Reeder find future coin. Sectioned off as projects at the very beginning of financing to those that are nearing completion, there happens to be tons of Sundance alumni in the names below. Among those that caught our attention we have Medicine for Melancholy‘s Barry Jenkins’ sophomore feature, produced by Bad Milo!‘s Adele Romanski, Moonlight is about “two Miami boys navigate the temptations of the drug trade and their burgeoning sexuality in this triptych drama about black queer youth”. Concussion‘s Stacie Passon digs into the thriller genre with Strange Things Started Happening. Produced by vet Mary Jane Skalski (Mysterious Skin), this is about “a woman who has...
- 7/24/2014
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
The Tribeca Film Institute (Tfi) have unveiled the 11 2014 Tfi Documentary Fund grantees who collectively will receive $175,000.
Tfi also announced winners of the second annual Tfi/Espn Prize and of the inaugural Influence Award stemming from its partnership with the Europe-based Influence Film Foundation.
The Tfi Documentary Fund grantees are:
A Ballerina’s Tale directed by Nelson D George and produced by Leslie Norville
Aquarela directed by Victor Kossakovsky and produced by Aimara Reques
Diamond, Silver & Gold directed and produced by Jason Kohn and produced by Jared Goldman and Amanda Branson Gill.
Nuts directed and produced by Penny Lane, who also received a Tfi Documentary Fund in 2012.
Pride directed and produced by Taa and Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund alumnus Mohammed Naqvi and Jared Ian Goldman
Tea Time written and directed by Tfi Latin Fund Bloomberg Fellow Maite Alberdi and produced by Clara Taricco
The Sensitives(pictured) directed by Drew Xanthopoulos and produced by David Hartstein
The Wolfpack Project...
Tfi also announced winners of the second annual Tfi/Espn Prize and of the inaugural Influence Award stemming from its partnership with the Europe-based Influence Film Foundation.
The Tfi Documentary Fund grantees are:
A Ballerina’s Tale directed by Nelson D George and produced by Leslie Norville
Aquarela directed by Victor Kossakovsky and produced by Aimara Reques
Diamond, Silver & Gold directed and produced by Jason Kohn and produced by Jared Goldman and Amanda Branson Gill.
Nuts directed and produced by Penny Lane, who also received a Tfi Documentary Fund in 2012.
Pride directed and produced by Taa and Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund alumnus Mohammed Naqvi and Jared Ian Goldman
Tea Time written and directed by Tfi Latin Fund Bloomberg Fellow Maite Alberdi and produced by Clara Taricco
The Sensitives(pictured) directed by Drew Xanthopoulos and produced by David Hartstein
The Wolfpack Project...
- 1/13/2014
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
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