October 17, 2009: All Points South

Drive 18 hours south from Los Angeles, California, and you will end up in a place called Bahia De Los Angeles, a spattering of sun bleached rooftops and pelicans galore. Dokument Films is here to tell the story of it s oldest resident, the whale shark.

Whale sharks have been coming to this place for millions of years. Their recent migration patterns to certain areas have been documented down to the hour. How do they do that? Do they have some kind of ancient but advanced navigation system? Why do they do that? Is there something special about this place that makes them return year after year, century after century? Shark advocates have managed to protect them in these waters and we are here with some of them to try to answer some of these questions by tagging them with GPS devices so we can study their behaviors. Tomorrow is a first for us. Looking forward to it! Over and out. Read the rest of this entry >>

My name is David Serota and I am a documentary filmmaker. As a storyteller I am drawn to the hopeful nature that is found in all struggles but particularly as it relates to the marginalized and disenfranchised. Their lives are often their only currency and I try to serve them with a filmic voice. I focus on the emotional landscape of faces and places by holding on shots so even in a short period of time, you feel connected. That is my intention anyway…

A few weeks ago I was driving down Pacific Coast highway singing along with Bob Dylan. “Pistol shots ring out in a bar room night…” As an artist he was compelled to write a song about the wrongful murder conviction of boxing legend, Rubin Carter. Their fight was not lost on me or on the day.

April 4th.

Forty-one years ago that day, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was gunned down in Memphis, Tennessee. All three of these men did more than follow their passion. They spent a lot of time with something, got really good at it, and then used it as a battle cry for issues much larger than themselves.

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