DOLPHIN EMBASSY
I, BEAST
53 min, 2023
When you enter the Labyrinth, a Beast appears at its centre.
It changes with every step you take.
At the moment of your meeting, you will give it a name.
And it will fulfil it.
A film-parable in which people from twenty countries build and walk the Labyrinth - the oldest tool for understanding the life path, at the centre of which an inevitable meeting and the main choice - between Good and Evil - await each of us. The eternal history of Theseus and the Minotaur, Man and the Beast, is lived here again by everyone.
Written, directed and produced by
Alexander and Nicole Gratovsky
Сinematography
Vakhtang Kuntsev-Gabashvili
Nicole Gratovsky
Irina Klimenko
Cyrill Ivanov
René Heuzey
Music
Kadir Demir
Kaily Preston
Ben Winwood
Bottega Baltazar
ANBR
Dust and Desire
Serafim Bit-Kharebi
Antony Vega
Michael Vignola
Ian Post
Assaf Aalon
Arkadi Shilkloper
Narratation
Clive Phillips
Nicole Gratovsky
Stage movement, costumes
Kakha Bakuradze
STILLS
REVELATION OF JONAH
57 min, 2020
How many times have you managed to feel that something much greater than you surrounds and pervades you? You call it intuition, a premonition or conscience - but who is really knocking inside of you?
Three days, three nights, three lives in the belly of a whale...
Eyes must become accustomed to the darkness in order to learn to distinguish light.
There is no other way to see clearly.
The film “Revelation of Jonah” is a philosophical parable, a perspective on the events occurring today to humanity as a whole and every human.
The biblical Jonah, who fled from his destiny, was swallowed by a whale, in the belly of which he spent three days, symbolically referencing the descent into the kingdom of death. Along which path is it necessary to pass in order to attain the opportunity for new life?
Written, directed and produced by
Alexander and Nicole Gratovsky
Underwater cinematography
René Heuzey
On-land cinematography
ANG
Music
Robin Scott Fleming
Michael Vignola
David Charrier
Kadir Demir
Jan Braas
Alon Ohana
Ilya Truhanov
Amick Cutler
Narratation
Clive Phillips
Nicole Gratovsky
Sound Recording and Editing
Supremedia
Anatoli Voronov
Marina Shangina
STILLS
FESTIVALS AND AWARDS
INTRATERRESTRIAL
a fleeting contact
55 min, 2017
TEASER TRAILER
The Shore and the Ocean.
The frozen and the fluid.
The artificial and the genuine.
Humans and dolphins. Two ways of life. Two mentalities.
A dialogue about two world-systems.
Is contact possible between them?
Intraterrestrial – inhabitants of the Earth - not us OR them, but us WITH them.
STILL PHOTOS
"...They do not built megacities, do not improve amenities, do not protect property, they are indifferent to technology, business and politics.
They have no economic reforms, peace-keepers with guns, priests on the payroll, no private possessions, and no immovable property.
They do not make things immovable – for them the idea itself is equivalent to death.
Instead of charity, they have compassion; instead of diplomacy – sincerity;
instead of museums – live art; instead of power stations - direct contact with energy..."
Written, directed and produced by
Alexander and Nicole Gratovsky
Underwater cinematography
Rafa Herrero Massieu
René Heuzey
ANG
On-land cinematography
Viktoria Fortunina
Maxim Drozdov
ANG
Music
David Rothenberg, Arkady Shilkloper, Jivan Gasparyan, David Swarup, Mikkai Kumo, Bernard Abeille, Paul Brousseau, Alizbar, Kai Engel, Alexander Samodoum, Galina Parfenova
Sound Editing
Tim Gauff
Artifacts
The Dolphin Embassy collection
TEAM
ALEXANDER and NICOLE GRATOVSKY Anthropologists, founders of the Dolphin Embassy, authors of several books: "The Generator Of Possibilities", "The Dolphin Principle", and "Another Humanity: Dolphins", several documentary novels about the transformative travel; as well as a film-experience "My Pilot, Whale"; originators of dozens of research expeditions, including a round-the-world expedition "30th Parallel: Archaeology of Possibilities". Authors of educational and transformative programs. | RAFA HERRERO MASSIEU Professional diver, naturalist and underwater cinematographer. His work includes the documentary “No man's sea" and the documentary "Isora, story of a short-finned pilot whale pod" and a recent project “Secrets of Macaronesia”. Rafa is a director of photography and “shaman” in "My Pilot Whale" documentary of the Dolphin Embassy. | RENÉ HEUZEY Underwater cinematographer, director of photography in the “Oceans” - film directed by Jacques Perrin (Cesar of the best documentary). René Heuzey has over 1500 shoots to his credit in all the seas of the world. Nothing stops this image adventurer: often working more than 100m deep underwater with special blends, he is the eye of many filmmakers. He was the one who brought the most beautiful images from the film “Planet Ocean” by Yann Arthus Bertrand. |
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MAXIM DROZDOV Cinematographer, award-winner for Best Cinematography at the Venice International Film Festival |
DAVID ROTHENBERG Professor of philosophy and music, ECM recording artist, author of numerous books on music, art, and nature, including Thousand Mile Song, about making music with whales. | ARKADY SHILKLOPER Multi-instrumentalist, composer, ECM recording artist. He is also known as one of the best jazz performers on French horn and alphorn in the world. His control of the horn and his creativity have set a new standard. | DAVIDE SWARUP Professional musician, traveller, pioneer hang player. He is often said to be a «soul player». As a hang musician, a very unique one, he inspires and blows the mind away from thoughts or mental mechanisms. |
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ALIZBAR Multi-instrumentalist, composer, harp player, music therapist. |
The Dolphin Embassy is a research, information, consultancy and production center that aims to create a new cultural environment conducive to a sustainable and harmonious development of life and consciousness on the Planet.
The Embassy’s activities are directly associated with dolphins and whales, who represent the most ancient form of consciousness on Earth, inhabit evidently the larger part of its surface, have abilities, and lead lives that provide lessons of great importance for humans.
For this purpose the Embassy carries out non-invasive research into the abilities of free-living dolphins and whales, as well as public experiments and exhibitions aimed at revealing fundamental commonalities of all types of consciousness on the Planet.
Dolphin Embassy Films creates documentaries based on these researches.
FILM CITATIONS
FESTIVALS AND AWARDS
EVENTS
MY PILOT, WHALE
27 min, 2015
TEASER TRAILER
Direct contact between two forms of intelligence is possible.
This contact overtuned not only our usual ideas about dolphins, but also about our ideas about the capabilities of human beings.
This film is the first to depict unmediated interaction between man and free-living pilot whale. It is a film that immerses audiences into the world of beings who have lived on our Planet fifty times longer than the humankind. A film that is in itself an experience of direct dialogue with them and the Universe. A film that presents us with an opportunity to adopt a different view of life, consciousness and ourselves.
Produced, directed and edited by
Alexander and Nicole Gratovsky
Cinematography
Rafa Herrero Massieu
Swimming, Narrating
Nicole Gratovsky
On-land cinematography, editing assistance
Victoria Fortunina
Music
Elephant’s Hands
Sound Recording and Editing
Alexander Moustache
Animation
Pablo Pares
By the time of release of the film, we have spent about fifteen hundred hours with them. Each time we come back from these journeys unable to speak. The space we have been to transforms our vocabulary that thus far seemed to describe the world quite adequately. The new language soaks in, re-cultivates us. The language is so much more genuine, that we are no longer able to speak and think in terms of the past.
STILL PHOTOS
All underwater images in this documentary were shot in the open ocean and feature free-living pilot whales
I think civilization is about the way we interact with the world. Had human beings opted for different principles we would see the world differently and would have a different civilization.
Where does the contact zone lie?
There’s no other medium but focused attention. No other reason but Love. There’s nothing else to talk about. That’s all they have here.
It’s about reestablishing the connection. Accepting the gift that is both a treasure and a calling. Everything about their usual selves is also about possibilities open to us.
AWARDS
WORLDFEST - HOUSTON INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL April 2016, Houston, Texas Platinum Remi winner | BLUE OCEAN FILM FESTIVAL Monaco, November 2015 Honorable Mention | HOLLYWOOD FILM FESTIVAL September 2015, Los Angeles, California Best Short Documentary - Finalist |
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INTERNATIONAL FILMMAKER FESTIVAL OF WORLD CINEMA November 2015, Milan, Italy Award Nominations: * Best director of a short documentary film * Best cinematography in a documentary film * Best editing of a documentary | AWARENESS FILM FESTIVAL September 2015, Los Angeles, California | MADRID INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL July 2015, Madrid, Spain Award Nominations: * Best scientific/educational documentary * Best cinematography in a documentary film * Best producer of a documentary film * Best director of a short documentary film Winner: Best cinematography in a documentary film 2015 |
TENERIFE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL July 2015, Madrid, Spain Award nominations: * Best Feature Documentary 2015 * Best Director of a Feature Documentary 2015 * Best Cinematography in a Documentary 2015 * Scientific & Educational Award * Best Producer of a Documentary Film 2015 * Jury Award 2015 Winner: Best Director of a Feature Documentary 2015 | EUROPEAN FESTIVAL OF UNDERWATER IMAGES AND ENVIRONMENT March 2015, Strasbourg, France Winner: Silver Award (Deuxieme Prix Master) | INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF UNDERWATER IMAGES AND ADVENTURES December 2014, Antibes, France Winner: Best Image Award |
WORLD FESTIVAL OF UNDERWATER IMAGES November 2014, Marseille, France Official selection |