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
Every now and again a documentary comes along that will change the way you look at the world. Fathom is, ostensibly, just the story of two scientists doing their jobs. Ellen Garland tracks humpback whale songs as they travel around the world. Michelle Fournet records non-song humpback whale calls and aims to decipher their meaning. Nestled within this, however, is an opportunity for viewers to make contact with a culture that existed for hundreds of thousands of years before our ancestors came down from the trees, and to recognise a level of sophistication which far exceeds our own.
The film hinges on Fournet's endeavours to start a conversation with whales, having isolated a sound which she believes to be a greeting and personal identifier. We begin in the lab, observing conversations as her electronic imitation of the call is fine tuned, gaining some appreciation of the degree of effort that has.
The film hinges on Fournet's endeavours to start a conversation with whales, having isolated a sound which she believes to be a greeting and personal identifier. We begin in the lab, observing conversations as her electronic imitation of the call is fine tuned, gaining some appreciation of the degree of effort that has.
- 6/28/2021
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
“Studying whale culture might be more about glimpsing something in ourselves,” says Dr. Ellen Garland in the new documentary Fathom. She’s a scientist who studies humpback whalesong, and over the course of the film, is on an expedition to determine where the spread of one specific song ends in French Polynesia, and where the next begins. The bounds of a community, in other words. At first glance, this seems a strange and esoteric study that has no bearing or impact on humans, but in its slow and naturalistic style, Fathom shows that whalesong has much more to say about us, and the scientists who study it, than we might have thought.
Garland’s work is only half of the film’s focus. The other deuteragonist is Dr. Michelle Fournet, a charismatic and enthusiastic researcher who is trying to figure out if a specific whale call––known as the “whup...
Garland’s work is only half of the film’s focus. The other deuteragonist is Dr. Michelle Fournet, a charismatic and enthusiastic researcher who is trying to figure out if a specific whale call––known as the “whup...
- 6/25/2021
- by Artemis Lin
- 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
Film follows two female scientists on separate expeditions to research how whales communicate
US documentary Fathom, about whale culture and communication, makes its physical and digital premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival next week ahead of its launch on Apple TV+.
The film follows marine research scientists Ellen Garland and Michelle Fournet as they embark on separate expeditions to French Polynesia and southeast Alaska to record humpback whale sounds as part of their efforts to fathom how the animals communicate.
Their work involves tracking down whales and lowering waterproof recording equipment into the water to capture the animals’ sounds. Xanthopoulos...
US documentary Fathom, about whale culture and communication, makes its physical and digital premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival next week ahead of its launch on Apple TV+.
The film follows marine research scientists Ellen Garland and Michelle Fournet as they embark on separate expeditions to French Polynesia and southeast Alaska to record humpback whale sounds as part of their efforts to fathom how the animals communicate.
Their work involves tracking down whales and lowering waterproof recording equipment into the water to capture the animals’ sounds. Xanthopoulos...
- 6/10/2021
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
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