Documentary Analysis: Sharkwater

Sharkwater, directed by Rob Stewart in 2007, is a documentary that portrays the highly misapprehension of the Shark specie. Stewart interviews several different individuals ranging from individuals on the street or people associated with companies or campaigns. His intentions for the documentary were good; he sought to inform the audience of Sharks and how harmless and significant they really are. The thesis of Sharkwater is that Sharks are more endangered than dangerous. Throughout the documentary Stewart uses a series of shots to appeal to emotion as well as interviews that show the misunderstanding of sharks. “Sharkwater will change the way people view sharks and the ocean. It will open their eyes... and, hopefully, their hearts.” Christopher Chin, Deeper Blue. Blue
The documentary starts out with old raw footage of Sharks in the past and how they were portrayed followed up with statistics and information on Sharks that dispute the representation. Stewart grabs our attention quickly with the footage because we all grew up understanding that sharks are one of the most dangerous species on Earth then he hits us with statistics like that elephants on average kill more humans than sharks, sharks only kill five people a year compared to the thousands that occur due to road rage. The dynamic facts presented in this documentary are eye opening, for instance the fact that Sharks were here before Dinosaurs is utterly surprising. Most of what we know about Sharks comes from the media when in reality sharks are not a threat to human society and only attack when they feel threatened or in danger. Every year, 100 people die from wasp or bee stings, yet hundreds of millions of people go swimming, and sharks kill only about five people. Only about 25 sharks have been known to actually attack people till this day. And what is compelling about these interesting statistics, out of all the people a shark attacks, more than 90% of them survive. The marjority of all shark bites