DREFF 2012 Opening Night Ceremony Will Premiere My Father, The Captain: Jacques-Yves Cousteau

New York, August 15, 2012

DREFF 2012 is pleased to announce its pick for Opening Night Film, My Father, The Captain: Jacques-Yves Cousteau The film is an intimate portrait of oceanography legend, Jacques Yves-Cousteau, told by his son Jean-Michel. The film, directed by Jean-Michel Cousteau, celebrates the life of the French explorer, conservationist, filmmaker, pioneer and visionary, in commemoration of what would be his 100th birthday.

The Opening Night Act will also feature the participation of Jean-Michel's son, and Jacques's grandson, Fabien Cousteau, who will provide commentary on the making of the film, the legacy of his revered grandfather, and the future of the world's oceans.

Opening Night will be celebrated Wednesday, September 5, at 6:00 pm in the auditorium at FUNGLODE Headquarters in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The 2012 edition of the Festival will take place September 5- 9 in the cities of Santo Domingo, San Francisco de Marcorís, Santiago de los Caballeros, Punta Cana, Baní, Puerto Plata and Sosua.

All film screenings and activities are free and open to the public. For more information on the Festival, visit our website at: www.drenvironmentalfilmfestival.org

Synopsis – My Father, The Captain: Jacques-Yves Cousteau
In every legend, there is a legacy. In the life and career of undersea explorer Jacques Cousteau, that legacy beats in the heart of the sea and in the heart of his son, Jean-Michel, the noted French environmentalist, educator and documentary film producer who has spent most of his adult life nurturing the work of his famous father.

In My Father, The Captain: Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Jean-Michel Cousteau takes an open and intimate look at the life he shared with his father and the legend he has taken upon himself to continue. In so doing, he hopes to shed new and meaningful light on the life and work of a man who inspired millions to reconsider our relationship with the sea and its creatures. In the process, he seeks to understand a little more about himself and his family as well.

"Captain Cousteau was a complicated man," the younger Cousteau writes. "He was a man of many different personalities, many different moods. But this is how it is with all great men, yes? We know the public mask, but it is the private face that reveals a man's true character. It is the man we know when the cameras are not filming."

My Father, The Captain: Jacques-Yves Cousteau contains new material and fresh insights into the life and mind of a man who helped to jump-start a global conservation effort that continues to flourish today. Jean-Michel Cousteau and his collaborator, New York Times best-selling author Daniel Paisner, offer an intimate reappraisal of the many touching moments Jean-Michel shared with his father, as well as the seminal moments from his father's life that have become part of the Cousteau family lore and legend.

About Jean-Michel Cousteau
Jean-Michel is the son of Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Simone Melchior. Cousteau first dived with an aqua-lung in 1945 when he was 7-years-old. Although he went to school to study architecture, he later became part of his father's Cousteau Society, serving for twenty years as Executive Vice President before striking out on his own in 1993 to produce environmental films.

Jean-Michel then founded the Ocean Futures Society in 1999, a marine conservation and education organization which fosters a conservation ethic, conducts research, and develops marine education programs.

In 2003, Francesca Sorrenti and Marisha Shibuya of the SKe GROUP project, in partnership with Jean-Michel Cousteau's Ocean Futures Society, collaborated to produce Water Culture, a Trolley Books publication featuring a wide variety of water-related imagery and interviews with prominent world personalities on the problems facing our water supply. Cousteau is also Chairman of Green Cross France.

Jean-Michel Cousteau is also working on a documentary highlighting the epic and disastrous 2010 Gulf Oil Spill, which killed 11 workers in an explosion of the Deepwater Rig, 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana.

About Fabien Cousteau
Fabien Cousteau is the Founder and Executive Director of Plant a Fish. Growing up with his grandfather, revered oceanographer, Jacques Cousteau, Fabien developed a passion for the ocean environment at a young age. Diving since age four, he grasped the vital importance of the Earth's underwater ecosystems. In addition to his vast field experience, Fabien also has a degree in Environmental Economics from Boston University.

Fabien's approach to environmental stewardship reflects his firm belief that solutions to environmental challenges can respond to the realities of the market economy.

The environmental economist and oceanographer is also the Co-Founder of Natural Entertainment, which produces environmental exploration and awareness programs through television and other media.

In 2006, he partnered with his father, Jean Michel Cousteau, and his sister Celine, to create the 3-year-long series for PBS, Ocean Adventures.

Recently, Fabien also became a member of the UN Millennium Project, an advisory board tasked with developing a concrete plan for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

Fabien is also a regular contributor to NBC's Today Show, and volunteers his time to empower youth to be champions of environmental stewardship.

Related link:
www.drenvironmentalfilmfestival.org
www.environmentaldictionary.org
www.globoverdedominicano.org
www.oceanfutures.org
www.plantafish.org
www.fabiencousteau.org
http://www.pbs.org/kqed/oceanadventures/xteam/