Private Project

Exploring Little Cayman

An exploration of the East end of Little Cayman Island in the British West Indies. Little Cayman is regarded as one of the most pristine coral reef sites in the Caribbean and one of the most protected, due to the government's environmental policies and the islands remoteness. Bloody Bay Marine Park and the West end of the island are well known and visited daily by eco tourists. What would we find in a remote part of this island, with even less impact from humans? The film features scenes from weeks of exploration of several miles of reef around the remote East end of Little Cayman, where few divers or fisherman visit.

  • Jim Hellemn
    Underwater Cinematographer
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    5 minutes
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography

Underwater Cinematography by Jim Hellemn

In more than two decades working on or in the ocean, Jim Hellemn’s photography has appeared in National Geographic and numerous other publications, in addition to several major public attractions and exhibitions. Creating public awareness about the need to protect our oceans is central to the projects he get’s involved in and develops himself. The core of Jim’s work focuses on developing new ways to photograph and experience the ocean, coral reefs in particular, and share them with the public. His life-size image of Bloody Bay Wall is the centerpiece of “Creatures of Light”, one of the most successful traveling exhibits by the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and currently at the Grand Rapids Public Museum in Michigan. Visitors to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach California can experience a California Giant Kelp Forest in a 130 foot wide image in glass panels viewable from inside and outside the building. In Grand Cayman, a five story high observation tower invites visitors to “walk up a Cayman coral reef” as they climb a double-helix staircase up a 70 foot high image of a Cayman reef wall.

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