Review: Playing With Sharks. A film Celebrating the life of Valerie Taylor

A true pioneer in both underwater film-making and shark research, Valerie Taylor is a living legend and icon in the underwater world whose life’s work has been to understand sharks and to pass on this knowledge to a huge audience. She is an extraordinary women and this film does an outstanding job of highlighting the work she has done to protect sharks in her home country of Australia and all over the world.

Through remarkable underwater archival footage, along with interviews with Valerie herself, “Playing with Sharks,” follows this daring ocean explorer’s trajectory from champion spear-fisher to passionate shark protector. I loved the “light bulb” moment in the film where both her and Ron decide that killing fish is not the way forward and swap their spear-fishing gear for underwater photography equipment.

Utilizing archival footage shot by Valerie and her husband Ron, along with interviews with her past and present associates, writer/director Sally Aitken paints a picture of a woman who possesses a gritty and infectious determination in her quest to protect sharks around the world. There is footage in this documentary that will be upsetting for any shark-lover, but the film-makers have used this historic footage to good effect. The scenes from Jaws and the stories of how they got the footage is well worth a watch. It is informative, full of incredible pioneering footage from decades past and hope for the future.

Having looked up to Valarie Taylor, as a strong female role-model, since I was a kid, this documentary was a real treat for me and I think divers and shark-lovers will enjoy it just as much as I did. We can only hope that Valerie’s work to save sharks, including this film, will help shark conservation going forward.

Playing with Sharks is now available on Disney+