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When fellow filmmaker Sean Bogle and I chose to take this project on and make a documentary (or several) about the vaquita, we had one clear goal – to have an impact on the outcome of the issue. We wanted to help prevent the extinction of the vaquita.
Although our approach has shifted several times, that central goal remains constant. In fact, that central goal is the reason that we decided to shift our approach. We have tried to keep that goal in clear focus throughout our work on this project, and use it as our guide. If a particular approach doesn’t seem to be getting us closer to that goal, a pivot is clearly needed.
The first such moment at which we realized we needed to shift our approach occurred in the spring of 2016. Sean and I were on our fourth shoot in the Northern Gulf of California, but it was the first time we had spent time in San Felipe during the height of the totoaba fishing season. For the first time we were watching this illegal activity, which is the cause behind the decline of the vaquita, play out right in front of us. By the end of the shoot, we were extremely disheartened – we understood then that the situation was getting worse, not better.
Sean and Matthew prepping audio gear in San Felipe, MX in the spring of 2016. Photo by Brenda Razo.
Sean and I were working with two additional crew members on that shoot, and the four of us had an in-depth discussion about the situation, and our approach. All of us agreed that a shift in strategy was needed – if we waited another two years to release our film it would be too late to save the vaquita. So Sean and I left Mexico that spring having decided to put together a short, 30-min film about the issue using the footage we had shot up until that point. Our goal was to have a completed short film ready in time to set up screenings ahead of the totoaba fishing season in 2017.
We spent the better part of the summer and fall of 2016 editing our new short film, which we decided to call Souls of the Vermilion Sea, referencing the original name Spanish explorers used for the Gulf of California. Before presenting the film anywhere else, we took it to San Felipe, hosting a series of community screenings. Our most successful screenings came in the classrooms of high schools and middle schools in this small town. The teachers in these schools were ecstatic to have an educational tool to teach their students about this complicated issue playing out in their backyard. We took the film to four different schools, and presented it to numerous classrooms, reaching hundreds of kids.
A high school classroom in San Felipe ready to watch Souls of the Vermilion Sea in the spring of 2017.
What impact might these screenings have had on the community and the vaquita? I strongly believe that we are shifting cultural mindsets and perspectives with our film. This is an ongoing effort – we handed out dozens of DVD copies of Souls of the Vermilion Sea when we hosted our screenings in the spring of 2017, and on subsequent trips to San Felipe teachers have told us that they continue to use the film as an educational tool, and that hundreds more kids have seen it since we provided that resource. I think it’s safe to say that the majority of middle and high school aged kids in the town of San Felipe have watched Souls of the Vermilion Sea (Almas del Mar Bermejo en español).
A middle school classroom in San Felipe watching Souls of the Vermilion Sea.
Of course – teasing out the impact of this is quite difficult. We handed out surveys to all the kids who attended our screenings, but these surveys tell us nothing about how exposure to this story impacted their future actions and behavior. That said, we strongly believe that this was the best possible approach to take. We could have focused all our effort on reaching the illegal fisherman themselves, but the likelihood of our film changing their behavior is quite low. But what if one of their kids sees the film, and is inspired to start a dialogue with their parents? I can only hope that our educational screenings instigated family discussions like this all across the town in the months that followed.
Sadly, the vaquita population has continued to decline precipitously despite our best efforts to influence the outcome with our film and associated education and outreach campaign. So while we cannot claim to have had an impact on the vaquita itself, we remain hopeful that our story has shifted attitudes among the younger generation that will soon translate into meaningful change in the region. If this generation grows up with a sense of respect and stewardship for the marine environment, the communities of the Northern Gulf of California could be transformed for the better. But it will be a transformation born from sadness, as it seems highly unlikely at this point that we can prevent the extinction of the vaquita.