“Think Ocean’s Eleven, The Avengers, only this time it’s real.”
That’s Louie Psihoyos promise to backers as he explains Oceanic Preservation Society’s plans for a new doc that will tackle the topic of mankind-caused species extinction. Psihoyos is the director of 2009’s award-winning documentary The Cove, which employed a number of covert operations engineered by the filmmakers to both ascertain new information and footage about Japanese dolphin harvesting practices, as well as spread awareness of the environmental atrocity and health concerns.
In a Kickstarter video promoting the project, Psihoyos promises that the group has an even bigger set of operations in mind to complete their new documentary, currently called The Heist. As the scope of the problem they’ll be examining is widened, so too are their ambitions for raising awareness and documenting the process. The director calls it the “most audacious mission in the history of the environmental movement,” which is bold talk indeed, especially when juxataposed with the crew seen engineering plans, scouting urban locations, and otherwise looking busy on a large scale in New York.
Frankly, all the footage of plans and documents and scouting from tall building in New York would be a little… uncomfortable, but with all the shots of building-side projection projects and such, I suspect they’re cooking up a large-scale PSA campaign rather than anything too controversial. But assuming they’re not going to use all our money for a mysterious project to blow some shit up, my fingers are crossed that they meet their goal and accomplish their “mission,” with there being an implicit suggestion that if they do, we’ll know well before the documentary is complete.
You can learn more about the project, the plans, and the potential rewards for backing them at their Kickstarter page. As of this writing they’re at just under 40% of the way there with almost three weeks left to go, so odds are they’ll make it. Their limited rewards are dwindling quick though, so hop on over and pledge if you’d like to get in on some of their signed rewards and other special opportunities to chat with the team, attend private screenings, or even dine with the crew.
Their Facebook and Twitter pages are also great places to keep up with the production.