The Coelacanth, a dive into our origins

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The Coelacanth, a dive into our origins (2013)

Directed by Gil Kébaïli

“A unique human adventure and a media-worthy scientific project”

Documentary · 1h 31m

Gombessa Expedition 1 To dive for the Coelacanth is to go back in time. In 1938, when it was known only as a fossil, a Coelacanth was discovered in South Africa in a fisherman's net. This species bears witness to an evolutionary bifurcation 380 million years ago, and bears the marks of a great event: the day the fish left the ocean for the open air. Does it hold the secret to the transition to walking on land? In 2010, a marine biologist and outstanding diver, Laurent Ballesta, took the first photographs of the Coelacanth in its ecosystem. In April 2013, divers and researchers set down their equipment at the Sodwana base camp in South Africa, in the club founded by Peter Timm (who died in 2014). Six weeks of extreme diving at depths of over 120 meters, in an attempt to film the Coelacanth with a double-headed camera, collect its DNA and tag a subject with a satellite-linked beacon...

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Cast

Crew

Director
Gil Kébaïli
Writer
Gil Kébaïli, Laurent Ballesta
Original Music Composer
Stéphane Lopez
Editor
Denis Batardière

Details

Original title
Le Cœlacanthe, plongée vers nos origines
Release date
2013-11-02
Runtime
1h 31m
Genres
Documentary
Original language
FR
Spoken languages
English, French
Countries
France
Production
ARTE, Les Films d'Ici, Andromède Océanologie, CNRS Images