Animal Planet acquired the documentary film Watson, which chronicles Sea Shepherd founder Captain Paul Watson, who has spent his life sailing the globe to keep our oceans and their inhabitants safe. Watson had its World Premiere at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival, where it was runner-up for the Documentary Audience Award. Additional screenings this year will include Zurich Film Festival, Hamptons International Film Festival and Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival, among others. Watson will open in select U.S. theaters this fall and premieres on Animal Planet later this year.
Captain Watson and his crews have confronted whaling vessels from Europe to the Southern Ocean, seal hunters in Canada, and shark finners in Central America. Watson blends revealing contemporary interviews with Captain Watson, archival clips of Sea Shepherd’s dramatic encounters, and spectacular underwater nature footage, as award-winning documentarian Lesley Chilcott (An Inconvenient Truth, Waiting for “Superman”) paints a fascinating portrait of a man willing to put his own life at risk in a relentless quest to protect the oceans and the marine life within.
Animal Planet is home to the popular Primetime Emmy Award(R) nominated series, Whale Wars (2008-2015), which followed Captain Watson and members of his Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, available to U.S. audiences via the Animal Planet GO app. The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences recognized Whale Wars in 2009 for exploring issues of concern to our society in a compelling, emotional and insightful way by bestowing the series with a Television Academy Honor, which identifies it as “television with a conscience.”
Captain Watson commented: “I am incredibly proud of this wonderful film by Lesley Chilcott, and I hope that it inspires people to be passionate about caring for and fighting to save our home – the planet Ocean.”
Chilcott added: “Watson begins and ends with the heroic and fierce commitment of Captain Paul Watson, a man who I have long admired and whose deeds to better the Earth affect us all. I am excited to partner with Animal Planet, which given their connection to Paul and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, is the very best home for this film in helping educate and inspire audiences to join them in the fight to save our oceans.”