Documentary Coral Ghosts reveals climate change destruction of reefs over 60 years

TORONTO - Oct. 8, 2020 - PRLog -- For more than half a century, the world's coral reefs have been steadily dying from pollution, development and climate change.

Coral Ghosts is the story of marine biologist Dr. Tom Goreau, whose life-long passion is to save corals, while on a mission to preserve his family archive of more than 7,000 photographs.

Many of these photos show how reefs have been destroyed over the last 60 years and are some of the world's first underwater pictures of corals dating back to the 1940s.

The 90-minute documentary directed by Andrew Nisker, was a year-long journey that took the filmmaker to the far regions of the planet. Filmed on location in the Canadian Arctic, Great Barrier Reef, Jamaica, Indonesia and the Bikini Atoll.

Coral Ghosts world premiere will take place at the 2020 Planet in Focus Environmental Film Festival Oct. 14-18.

These photographs, taken mainly by his father and grandfather, are perhaps the only scientific evidence we have of how rich and diverse these environments once were. Today they sit in hundreds of dusty boxes at Goreau's home in Boston waiting to be digitized.

Goreau's grandfather Fritz, a photographer for Life Magazine, started taking pictures of coral reefs around the Bikini Atoll after the atomic bomb testing in 1946.

Life Magazine named Fritz, photographer of the Century for his pioneering work in the new field of macro photography. The movie poster for 2001: A Space Odyssey was inspired by Fritz's work.

Goreau's family's pictures reveal a diverse reef system surrounding Jamaica in the 1950s. Now, reefs are nearly gone.

While in Indonesia, Goreau shows how reefs can act as natural wave barriers, protecting the shoreline from erosion at only a tenth of the cost of cement blocks. Coral reef loss is also affecting local fishing and tourism.

It turns out that electricity is very good for coral reefs. It re-energizes their biological energy. In 2000, Goreau started a reef restoration project in Bali, Indonesia with a process called biorock.   Now, there are more than 150 restored coral reefs, and the local economy has benefited from increased tourism.

Coral Ghosts (http://coralmovie.com/index.html) was produced by Take Action Films in conjunction with the Documentary Channel. It will premiere on the Documentary Channel in the spring of 2021. Coral Ghosts was supported by Rogers Documentary Fund, Rogers Telefund, Ontario Creates and the Canadian Media Fund.

Take Action Films is an award-winning film studio that produces social-impact documentaries. Its films have appeared on Netflix, CBC, TVO,  Sundance Channel and dozens of other outlets and well-known film festivals.

It's films are also available for streaming at takeactionfilms.com. Corel Ghosts will be available for streaming after it has appeared on the Documentary Channel.