It’s not often being in the right place at the right time can take you from Boulder to Hollywood’s red carpet. For Zack Rago, it’s a real possibility.
“It’s like the one thing that actually gives me anxiety - I don’t like thinking about it,” Rago said. “I’m not huge on awards or any of that stuff, but if corals can get a nominee for the Oscars? Rad, man.”
Rago is talking about “Chasing Coral,” a Netflix documentary about how corals all over the world are dying. The film was recently shortlisted to be a possible Oscar nominee. Rago plays a big role in the film—something that was never supposed to happen.
“I was just kind of thrown out into the field to put these cameras in the water, get them set up, make sure they were functioning,” Rago said. “That was my role - I wasn’t supposed to be on camera or anything even close to that.”
The reason he was involved in the first place because he had been working for the Boulder company, View into the Blue, which has developed housings for underwater cameras. The filmmaker, Exposure Labs enlisted the company’s help, and Zack found himself in front of the lens more and more.
“I think it’s a lovely way to communicate science because you’re looking at a human story--it’s not talking heads, it’s not numbers and graphs,” Rago said.
The plan was to use the camera technology to do time-lapses of corals to show how they were dying over short periods of time. The technology ended up not working the way they had planned, so they ended up having to gather the video manually.
“It was this crazy adventure all for the simple goal of trying to visualize this degradation of coral reefs that we knew was happening, but no one really had imagery of,” Rago said. “I was given a voice that I didn’t expect to have and I’m doing my best to make the most out of that—at the end of the day it’s really to explain to people that our oceans are really important and right now they’re in a state that is pretty scary.”
In total, crew members spent 700 hours underwater to make “Chasing Coral.” Rago said it is an experience he would not give up, even though it was upsetting at times.
“At the end of the day your job was to watch corals die for a month,” Rago said.
The film is impacting audiences as well.
“There’s usually crying in the theater, and I have people coming up to me afterward saying, ‘I never would’ve thought I could’ve been emotional or cried for corals,’ and that’s like definitely the best compliment we could ask for,” Rago said.
In addition to the Oscar buzz, “Chasing Coral” won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.
The awards are not what Rago is after—it’s awareness.
“If you don’t take care of the ocean, then you have some really large problems on your hands,” Rago said. “It feeds the majority of the planet.”
As for why he thinks the filmmakers decided to have him play such a prominent role in the film. Rago is not entirely sure but is happy he could play a part in the film.
“I think they enjoyed my story and my passion for the ocean, and love for what I was doing at the time,” Rago said. “I wouldn’t trade that experience for the world.” To learn more about “Chasing Corals,” go to their website: https://www.chasingcoral.com.
To learn more about Zack’s latest expedition, go to the Great Barrier Reef Legacy’s website: https://www.greatbarrierreeflegacy.org. To learn more about coral reef conservation go do the 50 Reef’s website: https://50reefs.org.
