THE  PROJECT

ARCTIC JOURNEY is a feature 90 minute documentary following Award-Winning Cinematographer and diver, Adam Ravetch, search to discover the final resting place of the elusive narwhal in the depth of the Arctic Sea. The film will chronical how arctic ice is melting and species like polar bear, beluga and the elusive narwhal are threatened as is Adam.

Narwhals are animals of myths and legends. But the threats they face due to a rapidly changing climate are very real.  Nicknamed the “unicorn of the sea” and long shrouded in mystery, the narwhal is famous for its long ivory tusk, which spirals counterclockwise and can reach up to nine feet (2.5 meters) in length.

Over the summer months, the Canadian Arctic is home to about 90 per cent of the world’s narwhal population. They congregate from Northern Hudson Bay to Ellesmere Island to feed and rear their young. In the winter, the majority of the world’s narwhals travel to Baffin Bay-Davis Strait between Canada and Greenland. There, they spend up to seven months under almost complete sea-ice cover.

This film will document the narwhal’s 4000-mile migration from north to south and north again as the narwhal faces rapidly melting ice and new predators from which they can no longer hide.

It will capture never-before-seen narwhal behavior in their winter-feeding grounds and follow Adam’s journey to the mythical narwhal tusk graveyard.  This site is only known through Inuit legends. Finding this location will be a historical and scientific discovery.  Inuit legend claims it contains thousands of the elusive narwhal tusks or “unicorn horns” thousands of feet below the frozen ice.

Adam Ravetch is the foremost cinematographer in the Arctic. His work can be seen in major series like BBC’s Planet Earth and Disney’s Secret of the Whales and Imax’s To the Arctic 3D; as well as Adam’s own award-winning narrative documentaries including Arctic Tale, Tooth Titans and Ice Bear 3D.

Adam’s partner for this mission is his trusted friend, Inuit guide Simon Qamanirq.  Simon is master carver, musician, and Adam’s Ice brother.

He is part of the last generation of nomadic, full-time hunters.  Simon’s knowledge of the narwhal and other Arctic animals is fueled by experience and generations of oral Inuit history passed down to him through the generations.

Simon has helped Adam achieve some of the first ever close-up underwater imagery of male narwhal sprouting a 9-foot tusk as they face hungry polar bears, extreme weather and unforgiving terrain.

Filming Timeline & Narrative

The film will be produced in a story narrative, similar to Adam’s film, Arctic Tale.  The story narrative will involve Adam and Simon’s ice brother relationship as they seek to resolves Adam’s quest for relevance, family and belonging juxtaposed to the narwhal’s quest for survival with climate change and the ever-changing world.  

Despite reaching the pinnacle of his field, Adam still believes there is one more journey. One more moment to be captured. It's not just Adam who is up against a ticking clock, it is the narwal and the ice itself.  

Adam hails from a distinguished lineage of Hollywood writers. His aunt and uncle wrote The Cowboys, starring John Wayne, but after attending its premiere Adam knew he wanted to live a life outside among the stars.  If an animal like the narwhal has such as strong sense of belonging why doesn’t he? He never expected his muse to be found in the most unexpected of places—above and beneath the Arctic ice.

It's not lost on Adam and Simon that their journey’s end is a site of death.  But their journey together—their partnership, their love and discovered brotherhood—is the reward.

Their connection is the key to uncovering the truth Adam so desperately seeks.  It’s an accomplishment, and it’s about the moment.  The moment Adam discovers life, family and home…
and where he belongs.

Filming begins in March on the pack ice of Davis Strait, where the temperature is 50 degrees below zero and only a few hours of light smears the horizon before fading to black. Adam and Simon set up camp and follow the narwhals diving for halibut carpeting the sea floor.

Adam will dive deeper than he has ever dived before.  He will be armed with the top camera equipment, a submersible and a drone to capture events above and below the ice.

The narwhal is equipped with an extraordinary internal clock that has been fine-tuned over the millennia by the immutable rhythms of the ice. Adam will collaborate with marine biologist Dr. Mads Peter HeideJorgensen to mount 'critter-cams' on the narwhal’s tusk, a wildly ambitious and risky venture.

As spring arrives, it brings a gauntlet of harrowing challenges – both for the narwhal and for Adam and Simon. Facing orca and other predators, the narwhals must navigate the shifting ice as they desperately need to come up for air. We will see a mother narwhal burst through the ice to save her child trapped below.

As summer comes, ice holes fill with narwhal tusks swaying in the air, as the male’s joust.  In the narrative, Adam wants to stay and learn more about this jousting spectacle, but Simon urges him to leave, as the Inuit have always known that when Narwhals wave their tusks in the air it means get off the ice, now!

Simon has hunted the Narwhal all his life. Getting to them has always been a risky maneuver, especially now that the sea ice has become more and more unpredictable. As they can’t reach the narwhal using snow machines, Adam will deploy an ultralight and try to land on the small floating chunks of thin ice as the very world beneath the duo is literally breaking up.

The film narrative will show how every time Simon hunts, he risks his life.  Adam, too, is at peril to capture the ultimate shot. For both of the men, it's a moment they can't wait to share. With all this talk of tusks, Simon reveals to Adam his belief that hundreds of the narwhal tusks lie in a graveyard thousands of feet below the frozen ice.

Adam and Simon set out to find this underwater treasure, aware of the punishing weather and obstacles they will face to find this mythical burial ground; and strangely enough, their activity coincides with a mysterious 2 week gathering of sharks and narwhal that Adam wants to investigate.

By August the narwhal predators arrive as their ice shelter dwindles. The orcas have come to hunt.  Simon and Adam boat up to an orca and deploy the camera that will record for 18 hours, then automatically drop off allowing them to retrieve it.

Most years, the orcas’ hunting season is short lived. Their large dorsal fin restricts their movements when there’s ice around. But now, with longer open water seasons, summers are challenging orca calf survival. What’s worse, climate change can also herald an unexpected reversal. In October, as winds die down, the ice can actually return with a vengeance. A flash freeze can leave the narwhals stranded overnight, unexpectedly trapped where they’re summering, blocked off by ice with no escape route.

As November looms, the narwhals have hopefully survived their warming year and are eager to return to their winter feeding grounds. Their incredible sense of home and belonging is not lost on Adam. For the next five months, narwhal are the only sub-whale species that feast this far north. But with temperatures increasing and ice breaking up earlier and earlier and returning later and later, there is concern for these mysterious creatures whose fate is forever tied to the shifting rhythms of the ice.

Adam and Simon know the time is now to do this journey. Time is of the essence: for the narwhal; for the arctic and for the two of them

TECHNOLOGY & EQUIPMENT

SURFACE RIGS & AERIAL DRONES 

  • Traditional surface rig with Tripod: RED DSMC3 Raptor 8K S35 Camera package, w/ Canon 50- 1000mmm lens and wide-angle lens.
  • Gyro Stabilized Rig Shot Over M1 with RED DSMC2 Helium 8K S35 Camera Package w/ Canon 50- 1000mmm lens.
  • DJI Mavic Cine 3 w/small 360 hang camera.
  • Traxxas Rovers & remote-control boat. 

UNDERWATER RIGS

  • Main Underwater Camera Package RED DSMC3 Raptor 8K S35 Camera package w/Nauticam housing.
  • Underwater rig Sony A7S3 w/Nauticam housing.
  • Dive & Sea Underwater Pole Camera system.
  • Mask Mounted Go Pro 10’s. 

UNDERWATER DRONES & SUBMERSIBLES 

NARWHAL AS CINEMATOGRAPHERS

NEXT
>