How to watch Playing With Sharks
They're really cute and cuddly (when they aren't trying to eat you).
While many people are terrified of sharks – we blame Steven Spielberg’s Jaws – underwater photographer Valerie Taylor is enchanted by them and has devoted her life to learning more about the pointy-toothed marine creatures.
Playing With Sharks is an Australian documentary movie about her remarkable 50-year career as a conservationist, diver and underwater photographer that began when she met her husband Ron at spear-fishing contests near Sydney in the late 1950s.
They became fierce protectors of sea life after Ron witnessed a culling of Great White sharks, and started a business selling film and photos they had captured of deep sea life. They were so successful that it is their footage that Spielberg used for the Great White sequences in his famous 1975 shark thriller.
How to watch Playing With Sharks
Playing with Sharks will be available to watch on Disney Plus from Friday 23rd July.
Shown in competition at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, the documentary film is a fascinating look at Valerie’s life, her relationship with sharks, and a movie career that, following her work on Jaws, includes underwater scenes she filmed for Peter Weir’s The Year Of Living Dangerously and The Last Wave, as well as The Blue Lagoon, Orca and The Island of Dr Moreau.
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Featuring vintage footage she and Ron (who sadly died in 2012) filmed, as well as new scenes of the now 85-year-old Valerie diving in the Pacific, the documentary not only provides an insight into Valerie’s fascinating life and love of sharks, but also reveals that some shark species are tame enough that Valerie can train them to follow commands.
As well as giving filmmaker Sally Aitken access to thousands of hours of underwater footage and her handwritten diaries, the movie contains interviews with Valerie’s friends and colleagues, and features Valerie talking about her determination to protect what she believes are the misunderstood creatures of the deep.
Playing With Sharks arrives on Disney+ on 23rd July. If you’re looking for something else to watch, visit our TV Guide. Check out our Documentaries hub for all the latest news.
