[Fwd: Worldwide TV Premiere of Last Journey for the Leatherback? on Link TV]

[Guest guest]

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Worldwide TV Premiere of " Last Journey for the Leatherback? "

on Link TV

Fri, 10 Dec 2004 11:01:46 -0800

robert ovetz <robert

robert.2 <robert

 

 

 

*SEA TURTLE RESTORATION PROJECT

*POB 400/40 Montezuma Avenue € Forest Knolls, CA 94933 USA

Ph. +1 415 488 0370 ext. 106€ Fax +1 415 488 0372

robert € www.seaturtles.org

 

* *

 

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

 

 

December 10, 2004

 

*To receive a preview copy contact*:

Robert Ovetz, PhD, +1 415 488 0370 x 106

Save the Leatherback Campaign Coordinator

 

 

 

*Worldwide TV Premiere of/ Last Journey for the Leatherback?/ on Link TV

*

*New Documentary Film Sounds Alarm About the Threat of Extinction to Sea

Turtles

/

/

*

Forest Knolls, CA —* *The nonprofit Sea Turtle Restoration Project has

released the new documentary, /Last Journey for the Leatherback?/ by the

Emmy award-winning documentary filmmaker Stan Minasian (dir. /The Last

Days of the Dolphins?, The Free Willy Story: Keiko's // Journey Home/).

/Last Journey for the Leatherback?/ will make its worldwide television

premiere to 24 million U.S. homes on Link TV (DIRECTV channel 375 and

Dish Network channel 9410) on Friday, December 10, 2004 at 20.00 (EST).

 

“Sea turtles are really symbolic of what’s happening to the oceans as a

whole. As go sea turtles, so go, will go, the ocean,” explains Dr.

Earle, a /National Geographic/ Explorer-in-Residence, in the stunning

natural duotone opening sequence of the film as dozens of newly hatched

leatherback sea turtles crawl to the water under the moonlight.

 

Scientists predict that the giant Pacific leatherback sea turtle, which

has survived unchanged for over 100 million years, could vanish in the

next 5 to 30 years, if current threats from wasteful industrial longline

fishing are not curtailed. The female nesting population of leatherback

sea turtles in the Pacific Ocean has collapsed by 95 per cent in the

past 20 years. The leatherback is the largest sea turtle, measuring nine

feet from head to tail with the largest ever recorded tipping the scales

at 2,000 lbs.

/

Last Journey for the Leatherback? /is a hard hitting documentary that

combines science, activism and rare footage of endangered sea turtles,

to tell the gripping story of sea turtles, the new icon of the ocean

environmental movement. Sea turtles are quickly reaching the status of

dolphins and whales and conservationists are becoming increasingly

alarmed and active in their fight to save these gentle giants, and to

stop the wide-spread impacts on the world’s ocean ecosystems. After the

premiere /Last Journey for the Leatherback?/ will move to the festival

circuit and eventual broadcast on the Caribbean Broadcast Union, Link TV

(US, DirectTV and Dish Network, and PBS (US),

 

For more information visit www.seaturtles.org

<http://www.seaturtles.org/> , www.savetheleatherback.com

<http://www.savetheleatherback.com/> , www.gotmercury.org

<http://www.gotmercury.org/> , and

http://www.linktv.org/programming/programDescription.php4?tz=0 & code=leather

<http://www.linktv.org/programming/programDescription.php4?tz=0 & code=leather>

<http://www.linktv.org/programming/programDescription.php4?tz=0 & amp;code=leather\

>

<http://www.linktv.org/programming/programDescription.php4?tz=0 & code=leather>

 

 

****

 

 

Resources

 

 

€ Film and video reviewers: to receive a preview copy of the documentary

call Robert at 415-488-0370 x 106 or email robert

<robert

 

 

€ Interviews with filmmaker Stan Minasian. Dr. Larry Crowder, and

Dr. Sylvia Earle may be arranged

 

 

€ /San Francisco Chronicle/ preview of the documentary available at:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/08/27/WBG0N8D7EV1.DTL & type=\

printable

<http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/08/27/WBG0N8D7EV1.DTL & type\

=printable>

<http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/08/27/WBG0N8D7EV1.DTL & amp;\

type=printable>

<http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/08/27/WBG0N8D7EV1.DTL & type\

=printable>

 

 

€ /E Film Critic/ review of the documentary available at:

http://efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=11104

 

****

 

 

Film Synopsis

 

 

*The /Last Journey for the Leatherback?/

 

*(Dir. Stanley M. Minasian in conjunction with Turtle Island Restoration

Network and the Center for Biological Diversity, Beta SP, stereo sound,

27:50 min., ISBN: 0-9761654-0-6, 2004)

 

Appearances by: Dr. Carl Safina, Dr. Sylvia Earle, Dr. Frank Paladino,

Dr. Larry Crowder, Randall Arauz

 

Shot in the US and Costa Rica

 

The /Last Journey for the Leatherback?/ documents the incredible life of

the leatherbacks – the largest species of sea turtle — which can dive as

deep as the whales and migrate across entire ocean basins. Much of the

story is told through interviews with leading marine scientists,

including Dr. Sylvia Earle, explorer-in-residence at the National

Geographic Society and named Time magazine's first " hero for the planet. "

 

 

The* */Last Journey for the Leatherback?/* *also details the threat

industrial fishing poses to their survival. Every year, industrial

fishing boats set /billions/ of baited “longline” hooks and millions of

miles of nets to catch swordfish and tuna. These hooks and nets are

prime causes in the decline of the leatherbacks.

 

 

 

“If the point of a documentary is to exact the will for change in an

audience, Last Journey for the Leatherback has succeeded with me. Until

the fishing industry gets responsible, they lose my few hundred bucks a

year from this point forward. Is this really the way we should be

gathering our fish supply?”

 

—Chris Parry, /Efilmcritic.com

/

-------------------------

The* Sea Turtle Restoration Project* is an international marine

environmental organization headquartered in Forest Knolls, CA and with

offices in Costa Rica and Texas. The organization focuses on protecting

and restoring marine wildlife in ways that address the needs of local

communities. The Sea Turtle Restoration Project (www.seaturtles.org

<http://www.seaturtles.org/> ) is a project of Turtle Island Restoration

Network, which also sponsors the Salmon Protection and Watershed Network

(www.spawnusa.org <http://www.spawnusa.org/> ) to protect endangered

coho salmon.

 

------------------------

Link TV is a non-commercial satellite television network available in

more than 24 million U.S. homes on DIRECTV channel 375 and Dish Network

channel 9410. Select Link TV programs are streamed on the Internet at

www.linktv.org <_http://www.linktv.org/_> .

 

Link TV is operated by Link Media, Inc., a California 501©(3)

organization, with production studios in San Francisco, New York and

Washington, DC. The network is funded by viewer contributions and grants

from more than 25 foundations, including the Ford Foundation, John D.

and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, John S. and James L. Knight

Foundation, Markle Foundation, Open Society Institute, Otto Haas

Charitable Trust, Paul Allen Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund,

Shei’rah Foundation, Surdna Foundation, Tides Foundation, Wallace Global

Fund, and William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.