Sneak peek at what to expect as the Ocean Film Tour returns to Shrewsbury

The event involves a collection of inspirational ocean-themed films, featuring intrepid journeys into wild seas and introducing audiences to some of the most colourful and bizarre marine life imaginable. It celebrates a wide range of fascinating characters who are all linked by one dream: to base their lives around the ocean.

The event, which originates in Australia, features a brand-new selection of the world’s best ocean-themed short films, with action and spell-binding footage from both above and below the water’s surface. The 2017 film programme sees intrepid freedivers explore haunting shipwrecks, nomadic sailors face the icy waters of Antarctica, and features awe-inspiring marine life such as humpback wales and the endangered Giant Pacific Mantaray.

Tour director Nell Teasdale says: “We’re delighted to be bringing the Ocean Film Festival World Tour back to UK audiences for the fourth year running.

“Featuring incredible cinematography, the films capture the raw beauty and power of the ocean, while celebrating an eclectic and fascinating mix of characters who live for the sea’s salt spray.”

The Ocean Film Festival World Tour is also encouraging local households, businesses, schools and any ocean lovers to take part in its Plastic Free July challenge - as plastic is a gigantic problem facing the world's marine ecosystems.

Highlights from the 2017 Ocean Film Tour include Sea Gypsies, Whale Catches and Fish People.

Sea Gypsies follows the ship Infinity and her crew are about to embark on an extraordinary voyage: 8,000 miles from New Zealand to Patagonia, taking in the intimidating iceberg-strewn waters of Antarctica along the way.

Infinity was built by hand in the 1970s and lacks some of the usual reinforcements considered necessary for such an extreme expedition.

Whale Catchers starts high on the rugged cliffs above New Zealand’s Cook Strait with an unusual group of ‘citizen scientists.’ This motley collection of men in their 70s and 80s are keeping watch for humpback whales as part of the Cook Strait Whale Count – a study into the recovery of New Zealand’s humpback population since the end of New Zealand whaling in 1964.

To some, the ocean is a fearsome and dangerous place. But to others, it’s a limitless world of fun, freedom and opportunity where life can be lived to the full. From surfers and spearfishers to a former coal miner and a group of at-risk kids in San Francisco, Fish People is a film about the transformative effects of time spent in the ocean—and how we can leave our limitations behind to find deeper meaning in the saltwater wilderness that lies just beyond the shore.

The Ocean Film Tour reaches Shrewsbury's Theatre Severn on September 20.

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