Living Mirrors: A Coral Reef Adventure
A companion book to a MacGillivray Freeman Film For IMAX® Theatres
By Jack Stephens
Contributions by Howard and Michele Hall, Jean-Michel Cousteau, Richard Pyle, Greg MacGillivray, and others.
Umbrage Editions is pleased to announce the publication of Living Mirrors: A Coral Reef Adventure, a grippingly-told, lavishly illustrated exploration of the unknown from the blue-green of the Caribbean to the azure of the South Pacific to the swirling eddies of the African coast. Authored by Jack Stephens with selected text by E.O. Wilson, the book presents a rare and beautiful glimpse into one of the world’s last wild places, the undersea realms, the most ethereal of which are the coral reefs. Contributors to the book include famed ocean advocate Jean-Michel Cousteau, award-winning natural history film producers Howard and Michele Hall, and noted ichthyologist Richard Pyle. Living Mirrors also serves as a companion book to a MacGillivray Freeman Film Coral Reef Adventure for IMAX® Theaters.
Living Mirrors: A Coral Reef Adventure provides an unprecedented look at our world beneath the seas. This timely book challenges us to greater awareness of the threat of extinction faced by many coral reefs around the world. In the company of marine life experts, its colorful pages of photographs and film stills guide us through the secrets of the reef in all its glory—gemlike formations, a kaleidoscope of colors, a wild profusion of fish and marine animals—while reminding that the very future of these unique and ever-important ecosystems lies within our hands. Speaking about the majesty of coral reefs, contributor and founder and director of the Ocean Futures Society Jean-Michel Cousteau said, “Captured on film, coral reefs have connected people, even those who have never seen the ocean, to the spectacular vitality of nature and the other creatures with whom we share the planet.”
Living Mirrors shows us why the miraculous diversity and beauty of coral reefs attracts a special breed of adventurer, men and women ready to plunge into the deep for the thrill of discovery and the challenge of recording and preserving the delicate ecosystems and the multitude of creatures that inhabit it, now threatened on a worldwide scale. Speaking to this point, Greg MacGillivray, producer and director of the film Coral Reef Adventure states that, “While few people on earth will ever experience the intense challenges and rewards of ocean exploration, Coral Reef Adventure opens up this world of unprecedented beauty and great scientific importance to everyone. The result is a rare glimpse at what we could lose - and also an exciting reminder that maintaining a sustainable relationship with nature is in all of our hands.”
Living Mirrors is a remarkable, joy-filled journey filled with fascinating text by experts who cover critical issues such as global warming, coral bleaching, and pollution as they threaten these abundant gardens of the sea. Indeed, the enduring frailty of this ecosystem and the impetus for its preservation is succinctly noted in the following excerpt by author Jack Stephens from the book: “Today’s reefs, many of them built on foundations hundreds of thousands of years old, compose the oldest continually inhabited multicellular communities on Earth and are the addresses of some of Earth’s oldest living beings (like the 126-meter diameter, 4,500-year-old mushroom coral colony on Fiji’s Astrolabe Reef).” A superb blend of daring adventure, educational challenge, and cutting-edge scientific research, Living Mirrors reveals a world we are just beginning to explore and understand, a world of sheer beauty and splendor worth preserving and cherishing as a legacy to our children and generations to come.
About the Authors:
Jack Stephens has scripted and consulted on Journey Into Amazing Caves, The Magic of Flight, and Adventures in Wild California, and is currently writing MacGillivray Freeman Films next IMAX® feature, Top Speed. He is responsible not only for Living Mirrors, but for the narration script of Coral Reef Adventure.
Howard and Michele Hall Husband-and-wife team Howard and Michele Hall are award-winning natural history film producers specializing in marine wildlife films. Together, they have received seven Emmys® for films including Jewels of the Caribbean Sea. They produced Seasons in the Sea, which received the prestigious Golden Panda award. They have authored several books, including Secrets of the Ocean Realm. In addition to their roles on-screen for Coral Reef Adventure, Howard also served as Director of Underwater Photography and Michele was the Production Manager.
Jean-Michel Cousteau was the world’s first child scuba diver. He grew up spending summers aboard the ship, Calypso, and took part in his legendary father Jacques Cousteau’s pioneering sea expeditions. Today his organization, Ocean Futures Society, continues that legacy: celebrating the wonder of the sea while advocating for its protection.
Greg MacGillivray has directed 15 documentary films for IMAX® theaters, including Everest and the Academy-Award nominated films, Dolphins and The Living Sea. A surfer and diver as well as filmmaker, MacGillivray is especially committed to making films that promote a greater understanding about the ocean environment. His company, MacGillivray Freeman Films, is based in Laguna Beach, California.
Hardcover / $34.95 USD
9" x 12” / 144 pages
135 four-color illustrations
March 2003
ISBN: 978-1-88416726-39
Download the press release (PDF)
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