{"id":798362,"date":"2026-08-02T00:50:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T00:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/798362\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T00:50:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T00:50:16","slug":"bioluminescence-captured-in-edie-widder-doc-a-life-illuminated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/798362\/","title":{"rendered":"Bioluminescence Captured In Edie Widder Doc ‘A Life Illuminated’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDirector Tasha Van Zandt<\/a> went to great lengths to make her documentary A Life Illuminated<\/a> \u2013 and to enormous depths. More than 3,000 feet, in fact.<\/p>\n

\n\tVan Zandt descended over half a mile to the ocean floor in a submersible to film the work of pioneering marine biologist Dr. Edie Widder<\/a>, who has observed and studied more deep ocean phenomena than perhaps anyone alive. Her discoveries have \u201ctransformed how we perceive life in the deep sea,\u201d the filmmaker writes. \u201c[Widder] began her career at a time when the deep sea was considered a dark, empty void. But Edie dared to look di\ufb00erently. Through her courage, curiosity, and her lens, she revealed the ocean as a glowing, dynamic world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWidder has uncovered a once-hidden \u201clanguage of light\u201d \u2013 dazzling bioluminescence that pervades ocean depths.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"A<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tA bioluminescent jellyfish seen in the North Atlantic Ocean.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tReinhard Dirscherl\/ullstein bild via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cEdie actually says, \u2018Because so much of our ocean world is bioluminescent and the ocean is so vast, bioluminescence may be the most common form of communication on our planet,\u2019\u201d Van Zandt said at a Q&A Wednesday that followed a screening of her film in Santa Monica, CA, a short distance from the Pacific. \u201c\u2019What is this language we don\u2019t understand?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIt took the development of submersibles capable of withstanding tremendous atmospheric pressures to enter that sunken water world. But something more was required to reveal the life forms and their activities so far below the surface \u2013 truly innovative thinking that has been the hallmark of Dr. Widder\u2019s scientific career. She led the invention and design of multiple devices to \u201cenable unobtrusive deep-sea observations,\u201d as noted by the Ocean Research & Conservation Association (ORCA), which Widder founded.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Dr.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tDr. Edie Widder earlier in her career.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSandbox Films<\/p>\n

\n\tAs the documentary explores, Widder developed an \u201ceye-in-the-sea\u201d system to remotely monitor deep ocean marine life. It uses far-red illumination, which she understood wouldn\u2019t bother creatures in the depths because most of them don\u2019t perceive infrared light. Widder also created an \u201celectronic jellyfish,\u201d an ingenious optical lure aimed to tempt sea creatures into camera range. By deploying one of the lures, she became the first person to capture video of a giant squid alive, a multi-tentacled animal trying to make a dinner of the faux jellyfish.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIn 2012, I, along with the rest of the world, saw this first footage of a live giant squid in its natural habitat,\u201d Van Zandt recounted. \u201cAnd I was transfixed by it, but it wasn\u2019t until years later that I started to really sit with the question of who was the person behind the camera and how did this [footage] come to be? And so, in 2020, I reached out to Edie Widder for the first time. And on our very first conversation, she started to share how that was just one of hundreds of discoveries she had made in this quest to transform how we see our ocean planet. And that is when the spark for this film began.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"A<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tA submersible deep below the ocean surface in \u2018A Life Illuminated\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSandbox Films<\/p>\n

\n\tEventually, Van Zandt took the plunge with Dr. Widder.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen I was able to dive with Edie, we saw things that likely no one has ever seen before, even beyond this film that we couldn\u2019t even capture on camera because it was so faint to the human eye. And it was remarkable,\u201d the director said. \u201cThere are incredible creatures in our oceans that we can\u2019t even begin to fathom how to even look for yet. So, it was completely life-changing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor decades now, Widder has been documenting the light show created by marine animals that mix chemicals in their bodies to generate bioluminescence. Van Zandt structures the film around the scientist\u2019s mission to capture the flashback effect (her white whale, as Edie describes it), an attempt to see how bioluminescent creatures respond when they\u2019re flashed with light from an otherwise darkened sub. It was a daunting task for Van Zandt and director of photography-producer Sebastian Zeck<\/a> to try to reveal that experiment.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"(L-R)<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t(L-R) Producer-director Tasha Van Zandt and producer-director of photography Sebastian Zeck at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2025.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGareth Cattermole\/Getty Images for IMDb<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFilming in the deep sea in complete darkness from a submersible is a huge technical challenge, but everything sort of came together on that very last dive,\u201d Zeck explained at the Q&A. \u201cWe used these specialized cameras provided by Canon to film that [flashback effect] sequence. Light sensitivity in photography is measured in what\u2019s called ISO. Normally in a daylight setting, we\u2019re shooting at ISO 800 or so. The sequence at the end of the film, we shot at ISO 100,000. So, that gives you a sense of the sensitivity required.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe attempt by humans to communicate with marine animals may evoke, for some, a classic Steven Spielberg film about first contact with extraterrestrials.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt really felt like all of the [marine] life was kind of responding in this fantastical way and truly felt like Close Encounters,\u201d Van Zandt marveled. \u201cWe flashed the lights, everything flashed back. And it felt like we were in the center of the Milky Way, but with blue glitter all around us. It was glowing and sparking. And just like the 4th of July \u2014 like [Edie] describes from her first experience. But then in the distance, we were seeing things that the camera couldn\u2019t even capture. There was life swooshing and sweeping and this glowing golden, amber-colored creature that we don\u2019t even really know what it was that was off in the distance. And also something fascinating is that the camera picked up this little creature called a tomopterid worm, which glows kind of a golden orange color that flashed along with all of the blue bioluminescence we were seeing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"'A<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSandbox Films<\/p>\n

\n\tA Life Illuminated, from Sandbox Films<\/a> and XTR, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last September, going on to screen at the Camden International Film Festival in Maine, Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival in Arkansas, CPH:DOX in Copenhagen, SFFILM\u2019s Doc Stories and many other festivals in the U.S. and abroad. It began its theatrical run on July 24 at DCTV Firehouse Cinema in Manhattan and the documentary opens Sunday at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco (where Van Zandt and Zeck are based). The 12:50 p.m. Roxie screening on Sunday will be followed by a Q&A moderated by oceanographer Sylvia Earle.<\/p>\n

\n\tWith its spectacular imagery of bioluminescent creatures, not to mention a giant squid measuring somewhere between 2-4 storeys tall, this is a film that demands to be seen on the big screen. That\u2019s the closest most of us will ever come to observing the astounding sights Edie Widder has witnessed for decades.<\/p>\n

\n\tVan Zandt says she regards her protagonist as an inspiration. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cGoing into the [final] dive\u2026 one of my greatest fears was how would I respond, if I would feel fearful, if I would panic. And she kept saying to us, \u2018Just focus on curiosity instead of fear.\u2019 And when we went down on the dive, that was really the guiding factor. There were definitely moments where I had to say, \u2018Curiosity over fear, curiosity over fear,\u2019\u201d Van Zandt recalled. \u201cThis lifetime of seeing things no one\u2019s ever seen before and breaking depth limits and just so many courageous moments that she\u2019s lived through has really instilled in her this incredible grounded-ess. It\u2019s really remarkable.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Director Tasha Van Zandt went to great lengths to make her documentary A Life Illuminated \u2013 and to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":798363,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[338774,338775,88,206,338776,338777,338778],"class_list":["post-798362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-a-life-illuminated","tag-dr-edie-widder","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-sandbox-films","tag-sebastian-zeck","tag-tasha-van-zandt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=798362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/798363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}