In “The Last Dive,” director Cody Sheehy follows Terry Kennedy, an ex-Hell’s Angel-turned manta ray conservationist, on a personal journey to Mexico’s Sea of Cortez.
After a stint in jail, Kennedy, a Navy veteran, uprooted his life and moved into a sailboat anchored in the Sea of Cortez in the 1980s. He lived on a boat named Erotica. Between boat parties, Kennedy found the peace he was seeking when he formed an unexpected bond with a giant, 22-foot oceanic manta ray that Kennedy named Willy. The fish would slap his wings against the hull of Kennedy’s sailboat, signalling that he wanted to swim with Kennedy. For 19 years, Kennedy held on to Willy’s back as they explored the ocean’s depths. Kennedy took numerous videos of his time with Willy and other manta rays, which allowed the scientific community to study the fish extensively.
“The Last Dive” follows Kennedy, 83, as he returns to the Sea of Cortez after several decades in search of one last ride with Willy.
Sheehy met Kennedy in Mexico eight years ago. The director was initially skeptical of Kennedy’s stories about riding a giant manta ray. That changed when Kennedy showed Sheehy his vast collection of home videos that documented most of his underwater excursions with Willy.
“I suddenly realized Terry had the ability to inspire a whole new generation in the way that Jacques Cousteau had done so many years before,” Sheehy says. “Everyone should know by now that the ocean is in trouble. But for me, it’s personal. I live with my wife and 2-year-old son on a sailboat. Over the last 20-plus years, I have watched life in the ocean disappear. I wonder if my son will inherit an empty ocean or will it be full of life again soon?”
Sheehy is currently working with John Sloss to find distribution for the doc.
Variety spoke to Sheehy at Maine’s Camden IntI. Film Festival where “The Last Dive” screened on Sept. 13.
At the beginning of the doc, it’s clear that Terry is hesitant about talking about his past, but you managed to get him to open up. How did you do it?
Sheehy: I think having somebody who was willing to ask tough questions and sit with him and some of the tougher parts of his life, and help him rethink and process it, was hard for Terry. He had buried a lot. But I believe that making this film was ultimately a form of therapy for him.
In the doc’s production notes, it states: “This film contains imagery of animal harm and features human interactions with manta rays that are no longer permitted or recommended.” So, no one, including Harry can ride manta rays?
Terry did a lot of behaviors that the dive community does not allow anymore and for a good reason. Manta’s are very friendly, so it would be easy to touch them and do things like what Terry did, and the mantas love it. But there are so many divers now that the dive community has adopted a good practice of trying not to touch everything in the ocean all the time because it could destroy the ocean. So, the days of riding manta rays are gone.
You worked with documentary whisperer Mark Monroe to help you structure the film. How did he influence the film?
Mark has an amazing ability to understand a story and say, ‘If you do this this way,’ and suddenly that suggestion transforms everything. He didn’t come in at the end of the film when we were editing. We actually started working together before we shot anything. I wrote (the doc) and structured it, and then would run it by Mark. We tried to figure out what might be possible or not possible, and then eventually went and shot it.
So you wrote out the doc before you started filming?
Yeah. I tried to imagine how the story could be structured as much as possible before the shoot. Obviously, once shooting begins, things change, and you shoot things that you weren’t expecting. I suppose writing it all out is probably a form of self-soothing.
“The Last Dive” debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year. CIFF is your fourth fest with the film. What appealed to you about Camden?
You tend to meet a lot of people from the industry at this festival. They also only choose just a few films, which is nice, and everyone knows it will be a fun time.
