My final project displays the ways in which my physical and emotional location shapes the story I tell about sharks and the ocean as “home.” I’m not from an area close to the ocean, nor do I share the ocean as a lived environment. Instead, my relationship to it has always been built through longing, imagination, and pictures, particularly of sharks. Documentaries, Shark Week, aquariums, childhood books, and even the looming shadow of Jaws helped form my relationship to the ocean and one of its key inhabitants, sharks. Because of this difference, my point of view is both admiring and self-critical. I tell a story about sharks that is driven by love, but I also acknowledge that this love comes from a place of fantasy, not experience. My documentary voice emerges through contrast and comparison, peaceful underwater visuals paired with the unsettling intrusion of pollution and human harm, as well as quotes from Spielberg in regards to the negative side effects of his hit movie. Rather than relying on a scientific basis, I lean on provocative imagery, narration, and ambient sound (such as with the boat’s motor or the calm ocean waves) to “show” how sharks inhabit their home and how humans disrupt it. This allows the sharks to appear not as statistics or symbols, but as residents of a place that has been misunderstood and invaded. By centering the ocean as a shared home and exposing how fear has displaced its true inhabitants, my project reflects my belief that environmental storytelling must engage with both love and responsibility. My documentary ultimately argues that care begins with reimagining the stories we tell, whether it be about nature, about fear, or stereotyped animals who are simply existing in their home.
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