Witness the birth of a new kind of documentary, as legendary diver, conservationist and filmmaker Jacques Cousteau takes you deep beneath the waves to explore a wealth of life that was previously hidden from view. As much of the technology for shooting film underwater was developed by Cousteau’s team, this was the first time such amazing sights could be captured on film. The result, a Technicolor 1950s masterpiece, succeeds both in revealing an untouched world of beauty, life and drama, as well as evoking a sense of adventure, freedom and boundless possibility.

Jacques Cousteau--naturalist, biologist, diver and the pioneer of underwater filmmaking--won the Best Documentary Feature Academy Award for this, his second film, in 1964. The film is a document of a brave experiment in which a team of divers, scientists and engineers attempted to live for a month in a purpose-built base rooted to the sea floor. As the crew of ‘Oceanauts’ explore the Red Sea in their metallic silver wetsuits, with Cousteau investigating the deepest depths in his custommade yellow submarine, the result is a staggering mix of nature documentary and far-out 1960s science fiction. Only this time the fiction is real. 1964