Shark Week is upon us this month, but there’s a different shark story heading to HBO and Max on July 26 to give documentary-makers a clever complement to Discovery’s annual launch.
Directed and produced by Ivy Meeropol, “After the Bite” takes a look at how a 2018 shark attack left a Cape Cod, Massachusetts community reeling from the effects of a readjusting marine environment. Local residents and vacationers flock to Cape Cod each summer in droves, but are only now beginning to come to grips with the alarming reality of apex predators. IndieWire shares the trailer below ahead of the documentary’s premiere.
Deadly interactions of great white sharks with people have increased in waters extending from Maine to the Cape and Islands. Public protectors are now faced with the risk of serious injury with stop-the-bleed kits at all public-access beaches, along with PSAs, billboards, shark-tracking apps, spotter planes, and new safety programs and protocols. training for lifeguards. “After the Bite” examines a coastal community renegotiating its relationship with the environment as waters become increasingly hospitable to sharks and their prey.
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Talking heads from “After the Bite” include lifeguards, conservationists, fishermen, journalists, paramedics, city residents, activists, and scientists who tackle problems and find solutions, including seal scientist Lisa Sette of the Center of Coastal Studies; Dr. Greg Skomal and Meg Winton of the Atlantic White Shark Conservatory, which tracks sharks off the Cape Cod coast and estimates 800 great white sharks in waters from 2015 to 2018; and Crocker Snow, whose uninhabited island in Nantucket Sound is the largest breeding ground for seals in the western North Atlantic.
“After the Bite” screened at the recent Nantucket Film Festival. It is a Reversal Films production in association with Red 50 Inc. Xan Parker produces with director Meeropol; the HBO Documentary Films presentation is produced by Whitney Dow. HBO EPs include Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller and Tina Nguyen.
Ivy Meeropol previously directed “Bully. Coward. Liar. The Roy Cohn story.
