Chémi Pérez and Joel Cazorla of Spain’s Cabo Sur Films is teaming with Lucía Flórez and her Peru-based production company, El Taller.pe to produce the feature-length documentary “Ever and the Sharks” (“El niño y el tiburón”). 

Boasting prior social impact and environmental work, they’re gearing up to present the project at Locarno’s upcoming Match Me! networking forum, unspooling Aug. 4-6.

The team is working with leading marine biologist Alejandra Mendoza Pfenning and her NGO, EcOceana, who have just received a generous donation allowing them to geotag whale sharks off the Peruvian coast for the first time. Currently prioritizing private fundraising, the filmmakers hope to capture this milestone for the documentary during this year’s “El Niño” phenomenon, set to bring an influx of whale sharks to the region.

Following their short film “Shirampari: Legacies of the River,” Flórez and Pérez are reuniting to co-pen the current project, which will follow Mendoza Pfenning and Ever Apolo, a grieving teenage boy from a disenfranchised Peruvian fishing community. Having formed a bond, the two set off on an uncertain journey, as they tag sharks to help save the species and potentially provide Apolo a bright future in the process, one part conservation mission, one part generational reckoning tale.

With plans to blur the lines of reality and fiction, the film aim to use an engaging mixture of styles to lure audiences into Apolo’s struggles and dreams in tandem with the steady habits of Peru’s offshore visitors, hoping to raise awareness of the need for further research while diving into a character study of its young protagonist.

“With this film, I aim for the two facets of this project to engage in a touching and exciting conversation: research and storytelling,” Flórez told Variety. 

“I’m certain of the power that great stories have to bring about change when they’re told with transparency and collective effort, and I know that this film will not only achieve changes in the local community but also open up a new universe of connection with the sea, something I owe to my inner child,” she added.

The project is taking part at the Fulgor Lab development program in Lens, Spain, providing the team access to this year’s San Sebastian Film Festival. It has received the National Prize for Documentary Film Development from the Ministry of Culture (DAFO) in Peru.

Exploring global and regional streaming opportunities for their current and emergent slate, Pérez admitted that, “platforms are definitely changing the ecosystem for theatrical distribution and the overflow of great content makes the audience have a hard time deciding what to watch.” 

Pinning down plans to incorporate all available distribution schemes, the team has set sight on a strategic rollout.

“Film festivals, limited theatrical distribution and platforms are key players in our distribution strategy,” Pérez shared. “What we’ve found with our previous short film, which also has a youngster as main character, is that younger audiences are always forgotten and infantilized. Distribution in educational contexts and dedicated to younger audiences will be key for us in the near future and we’ve had amazing experiences with it so far.”

In development, “Ever in the Sharks” is scheduled to go into production over Nov. 1-20and will span four whale shark seasons, moving along with the scientific community and in tandem with 13-year-old Apolos’ adolescence. An ambitious multi-year project that unfolds spontaneously, changing with the tides and the temperamental and hopeful nature of a teenage boy looking toward his future.

“‘Ever and the Sharks’ avoids the rush of current filmmaking and sets a very extensive production phase to allow us to connect with the constant struggle of oceanic scientific investigation and with the subtle yet major changes of a teenager in the most crucial years of his life,” Pérez told Variety. 

“I think that young adults and teens will appreciate a story that reflects their coming of age, which you don’t always get to watch on the screens. But the universality of the story and the narrative efforts despite its natural and ‘cinèma verité’ appearance will be key in setting this film apart from the rest,” he added.

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