Bettina Dalton: Valerie’s story came to me when I was a teenager. I saw it on the cover of National Geographic. He wore his mesh suit and had a blue shark on his arm. I will never forget that image; it just stuck in my mind. It was like wonder woman or some superheroine. I also grew up in Australia where the Ron and Valerie movies were on television. They brought the underwater world to our rooms. Over time, I learned to dive, became a natural history filmmaker, and had the opportunity to make a documentary with Valerie and Ron about twenty-two years ago. That opportunity led me to this moment, being exposed to his entire film archive. That’s when I realized there had to be a Valerie movie about her as a singular woman, achieving what she accomplished as a pioneer. There was a very rich archive. So I went up to her and practically said to myself: “why did you take so long?” We started and soon Sally arrived
Sally Aitken: It was quite a task laden with both privilege and responsibility. Carrying the story of a huge life and finding a narrative line or guiding principle for the story was very challenging but at the same time very obvious. It was challenging because there is an extraordinary amount of material on Valerie, which is a nice problem to have, but at the same time challenging. We had over five thousand hours of footage, as well as a whole collection of material from Valerie and Ron. But in essence, what I found fascinating was the unlikely relationship of a woman who befriends and understands one of the ocean’s most feared species: sharks. I liked the way of delving into a beauty and the beast narrative, but expanding it in such a way that it left room for each viewer to bring their own understanding to the story.
When watching the documentary, we see a vision opposite to what the cinema usually portrays, which shows sharks as antagonistic …
Valerie Taylor: Our film aims to make a difference in our perception of sharks, and I think we succeeded. Sharks in general can be reasonably friendly, just as a dog is friendly when you give it a treat. I had a few pieces of fish in my wetsuit and from time to time I would give the sharks a taste and they would follow me, like little dogs, hoping that I would give them a little more. This is how I work with them in front of the cameras, but the audience does not know that I used that bait.
In the movie they talk about how Shark (1975) gave sharks a bad rap, and even Peter Benchley, the writer, said that had he known the consequences, he would not have written that novel. Do you regret having worked there? If you could go back in time, would you have changed something?
The movie is something that I had no control over; It is a fictional story of a fictional shark. None of the people who worked on the film thought that audiences would take it that seriously. You don’t expect to see King Kong at the Empire State Building when you travel to New York, so why would you expect to see Bruce –Jaws– when you’re in the water? It’s going to be very rare that you ever see a shark on the beach in your life. And if you happen to see it, consider it a privilege. Sharks in Australia are practically identical to those in the United States, Latin America or wherever. They are there for a reason, because without sharks in the sea it would be very difficult to keep the oceans free of sick, old and unhealthy animals, and thus keep other species healthy. I dislike the fact that they are hunting sharks only for their fins. People are not very good; we only think of ourselves, and one day we will pay a price for thinking that way. We have to be careful.
Do you think the documentary will have an impact on the perception of sharks and the importance of preserving marine life?
VT: I think this film will teach the general public that marine life is not just weird things swimming in an alien environment, but rather like the animals that live on earth: there is the big one, the medium one, they all fit in a niche. It was also very important to note that we are slowly destroying life as nature intended it to be, by doing nothing to help the marine environment. We have national parks that were left unprotected by the virus. Practically the divers were the ones who protected areas of the marine world, simply by being there and paying for it. It bothers me that I have done throughout my life being reversed and I can’t do anything about it. I’m stuck here There are places in Latin America that are excellent for diving and that are being destroyed by overfishing and nothing is being done about it. The world is changing and will never be the same. Unfortunately I am old and could see the sea at its best. I started diving before we hunted animals almost to the point of extinction and when the world was spotless.
BD: I think it is very difficult for new generations to see what the seas were like before, and in that sense, Valerie and Ron did something very great for science by capturing the videos they made, because that way we know that what we had is lost. So this is not just entertainment, but also something of scientific interest, thanks to the footage Valerie and Ron captured.
Sally, Bettina, what did you learn from Valerie by working with her and reviewing her life?
SA: It is difficult to answer that question because there is still no definitive answer; we continue to learn from her. We continue to learn, we remain inspired, and we continue to be amazed by the things Valerie has to teach us. Speaking for myself, it was a huge responsibility to make this film, but in a profound way it made me aware of our collective responsibilities and the potential we have to make a difference. A while ago Bettina was talking about the abundance that was on the coasts of Australia, which has been degraded in half a century. I grew up in Auckland, New Zealand, on the shores of the Hauraki Gulf, and we also have a summer house on an island, and my grandparents and great-grandparents took pictures of the fishing that was done and it was super abundant. I personally never felt responsible or connected to the decline of the ocean, so this was a kind of awakening. It is not about being a diver, but about being aware that conservation begins with us. I knew it intellectually, sure, but in the process of spending time with Valerie it hit me more acutely and emotionally. That’s a small example of how Valerie continues to inspire us.
Valerie, what kind of reflection did having to revisit your whole life for this documentary provoke in you?
VT: I hadn’t really thought about it. I still remember everything I did underwater. My memory comes in images; I am a painter, an artist. I made a living as an artist before being a diver in front of a camera. I still paint, and in fact, my paintings were screened at the Sydney Opera House recently. But I have always thought, even when I was a fisherman, that marine life is important because, when you live by seeing it and working with it, you know all the animals that inhabit the sea and you recognize the role they play in life. In the ocean, everything has a function, even if it is only to feed a larger species. Nature does not make mistakes, only one, and that is us. We are not behaving like good animals at all, and I fear that we will destroy the life of the planet that sustains us. In fact, we are doing it at a very fast pace with plastic pollutants. We destroy the things that purify the planet. If we don’t reach a sustainability agreement, very soon it will be too late.