Francois Leduc gives literal meaning to the term “swimming with sharks.” Leduc recently spoke at the IMAX about his experiences free-diving with sharks for the making of the movie Great White Shark.
During the filming of the IMAX feature it was Leduc’s job to protect the featured diver William Winram when they were diving with sharks in South Africa, New Zealand, Mexico, and California.
Leduc has been free-diving since 2000, but diving with sharks was a new experience for him. Although he was diving without gear, he claims that it’s actually not a scary experience.
“Respecting the animal is respecting the fact that, yes, there’s some danger and you can’t take the animal lightly and everything, but it’s different than being scared,” says Leduc. “If you act like prey, then the risk of ending up as prey is much higher because the shark will sense that, but in general if you hold your position and you have a good presence in the water then the shark will be more curious, cautious like the same way we are.”
Rather than fear, Leduc said he felt a sense of mutual respect with the animals he was sharing the waters with.
“And that’s a very unique feeling,” he says, “when you sense that as much as we’re curious and looking to understanding who they are, or what they are, you can sense the same thing from them.”
Leduc says one of the goals of Great White Shark is to give viewers a different perspective on the much-feared animals, due to other movies and the media. Leduc would like to see a shift in the public’s perception of sharks.
“They are always depicted as kind of a monster, and a menace, and the movie shows a different image,” he says. “Without denying the fact that they’re hunters and they can be very efficient at predating their prey, but showing that they aren’t a killing machine. They’re not acting and behaving the way people might think they are. Part of the goal of the movie is to hopefully have the ability to change the fear and transform it into a respect.”
Leduc is very passionate about sharks and says that we are directly connected to the ocean and need to respect the animals that are there.
“The human relationship with the ocean is sometimes weird,” he says. “We have a tendency to think that we own everything, and that we can do anything we want, but there’s a huge lack of respect.”
As for moments during the film’s creation that were particularly memorable, the reverence in Leduc’s voice is unmistakable as he described an encounter with a female shark.
“She was just huge, must’ve been at least four to five meters long and just amazingly big, but she was so graceful and peaceful in the water. She stayed with us in one trip for about at least two hours,” he recalls, “just kept circling and coming backÉ a little bit shy, but cautious, but still comfortable enough for us to be able to really interact and get very close to her.”
Despite being in such close proximity to such an enormous great white, Leduc says he never at any moment felt any threat or form of aggression from the shark.
“She was just smooth and made very peaceful movements in the water,” he says. “So it was quite unique actually, and it was actually the closest that I really came to a great white because she was so calm and we could easily approach her.”
Great White Shark
Daily 10 am, 1, 3 and 5 pm
$9.35-$11.80, National Geographic IMAX
imaxvictoria.com