Pic About Great White Shark Surge Off Cape Cod Lurking At HBO Documentary Films; Ivy Meeropol Directing

Erik Pedersen
·1 min read
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Cue the creepy tuba music. Just when you thought is was safe to go back in the water, HBO Documentary Films and director Ivy Meeropol have begun work on a documentary about the rise of great white sharks off Cape Cod.

The untitled feature will look at how the serene waters off southern Massachusetts have become one of the world’s hotspots for the giant predators during the past decade. Explosive growth in the seal population and shifting climate patterns are drawing sharks to this part of the northwest Atlantic.

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The film is a portrait of how local residents – and the thousands of vacationers who flock to Cape Cod every summer — grapple with this alarming new reality while following the science to investigate what marine life can tell us about the health of the ocean. Meeropol, who helmed HBO’s 2019 docu Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn, directs and also produces with Xan Parker (Rebuilding Paradise).

“As a longtime resident of the Outer Cape, I’ve been watching this story unfold with great interest,” Meeropol said. “As I saw the community become divided, it became clear that the politicizing of this issue reflected a greater struggle that’s permeated our collective psyche. How do we see ourselves within the natural world, and how does that affect our responses to it? The fear isn’t just of the shark itself; it’s the fear of nature, of the unknown and of what we cannot control.”

The shark tale is a production of Reversal Films for HBO Documentary Films. Lisa Heller and Nancy Abraham serve as executive producers.

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