In “The Last Dive,” director Cody Sheehy follows Terry Kennedy, a former Hell-turned-angel Manta conservationist, on a personal journey into the Sea of Cortez in Mexico.
After a prison stint, Navy veteran Kennedy uprooted his life and moved to a yacht fixed in the Sea of Cortez in the 1980s. He lived in a boat called Erotica. During the boat party, Kennedy finds the peace he was hoping for when he formed an unexpected bond with the huge 22-foot marine manta that Kennedy named Willie. The fish slammed the wings on the hull of Kennedy’s yacht and said they wanted to swim with Kennedy. For 19 years, Kennedy continued to hold onto Willie’s back as he explored the depths of the ocean. Kennedy filmed numerous videos of his time with Willie and the other Mantas. This allowed the scientific community to study fish extensively.
“The Last Diving” follows Kennedy (age 83). He returns to the Sea of Cortez in search of his final ride with Willie for decades.
Sheehee met Kennedy in Mexico eight years ago. The director was initially skeptical of Kennedy’s story about riding a giant manta ray. That changed when Kennedy showed Sheehee his vast collection of home videos.
“I suddenly realized that Terry has the ability to inspire a whole new generation in the way Jacques Cousteau did years ago,” says Sheehee. “Everyone should know that the ocean is in trouble, but for me it’s personal. I live on a yacht with my wife and my two-year-old son. Over the past 20 years, I have seen life disappear at sea.
Sheehy is currently working with John Sloss to find the distribution of Doc.
Variety spoke to Sheehee at Camden inti, Maine. The film festival was screened on September 13th, “The Last Dive.”
At the beginning of the document, it’s obvious that Terry is hesitant to talk about his past, but you let him open up. How did you do it?
Sheehee: I think there are people who ask tough questions and sit with him and some of the tougher parts of his life and are willing to help him rethink and deal with it. He had buried many. But I believe that making this film was ultimately a form of treatment for him.
Doc’s production notes stated, “The film contains images of animal harm and is characterized by human interactions with mantas that are no longer permitted or recommended.” So, can no one, including Harry, ride the mantas?
Terry has done a lot of action for good reason that the diving community no longer allows. Mantas are so friendly, it’s easy to touch them and do things like what Terry did. However, there are so many divers as the diving community employs a good practice of always trying to avoid touching everything in the ocean, as it can destroy the ocean. So the time for riding mantas is gone.
You worked with documentary whisper Mark Monroe to help structure the film. How did he influence the film?
Mark has the incredible ability to understand the story and say, “If I do it this way,” and all of a sudden his suggestion changes everything. He didn’t come to the end of the film when we were editing. We actually started working together before filming anything. I write it, structure it, then do it by marking. I tried to figure out what was possible and eventually went and filmed it.
So, did you write the document before you started filming?
Yeah. I tried to imagine how I could structure the story as much as possible before filming. Obviously, once filming begins, things change and we shoot things that we didn’t expect. I think writing it all out is probably a form of self-sedation.
“The Last Dive” made its debut at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year. CIFF is the fourth fest in the film. What appealed to you about Camden?
This festival tends to meet many people in the industry. They also choose only a few movies, but that’s great and we know that it’s going to be a fun time for everyone.
