Ryan’s Movie Corner

By Ryan Vickers

Movie Corner May 2023

 

In this month’s issue, I’d like to tell a bit of a story that happened to me nearly twenty years ago as a newly minted open-water diver.

 

I was travelling from St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, to see friends. After spending a day sightseeing, I came across a poster advertising a guest speaker at a special IMAX presentation of “Coral Reef Adventure.”

 

Do you know that situation where you feel that “money is no object”? Well, as a university student, I did not spend the most money in the world, but I felt that when life presents you with an opportunity, you go for it.

 

So, I did.

 

I called up the ticket line, I spent a massive one hundred Canadian dollars on my credit card and secured a spot for the guest speaker.

 

And that, dear readers, is how I was in a room with Jean-Michel Cousteau one evening.

 

I was absolutely fascinated. How was it that I had the luck to be in the same space as the son of the man who popularized and had a hand in inventing the sport that we all love?

 

I, along with everyone else, watched the movie, and then we were all invited back into a space in another part of the museum to celebrate the screening.

 

I figured that I was not going to waste this opportunity.

 

I walked up to Jean-Michel Cousteau and started talking. As a French teacher whose second language is French and is all acquired through schooling and real-life experiences, I was EXTREMELY nervous.

 

I don’t remember everything about that conversation, but I do recall that I was able to communicate everything in French, and we talked about my experiences diving wrecks on the East Coast of Canada. He was then nice enough to sign my logbook and take a picture – that picture is somewhere in a box, and I really should dig it out and scan it!

 

Oh – and I should tell you about the film as well.

 

“Coral Reef Adventure,” like every IMAX film you may have seen, is gorgeously filmed. It tells the story of married photographers Michelle and Howard Hall exploring the troubling state of reefs and oceans around the world. They work to find out how they can help improve the conditions by meeting with scientists and other environmental crusaders.

 

Want to see if things have changed (hopefully for the better) over the last two decades? The film is available for viewing on Amazon Prime and on YouTube (depending on your location).

 

See you next time in Movie Corner!