SCIENCE + FILM: Deep Rising / Matthieu Rytz

To fuel our future, how low can we go? The fate of the planet’s last untouched wilderness, the deep ocean, is under threat as the corporate interest on massive extraction of seabed metals is on the rise, massivly. Narrated by Jason Momoa.

Filmmaker Matthieu Rytz returns with this up-to-the-minute tale of geopolitical, scientific, and corporate intrigue that exposes the machinations of a secretive organization empowered to greenlight massive extraction of metals from the deep seafloor that are deemed essential to the electric battery revolution.

Narrated by Jason Momoa, Deep Rising illuminates the vital relationship between the deep ocean and sustaining life on Earth. The documentary also follows mining startup The Metals Company, as it pursues funding, public favor, and permission from the International Seabed Authority to mine wide swaths of the Pacific Ocean floor. Rytz’s fly-on-the-wall access observes extraction companies as they co-opt scientific studies and deliver pitches to investors, proposing how the costs of industrializing our Earth’s last pristine environment can be justified to access metals they claim will benefit all of mankind. As oil conglomerates pivot investments to deep-ocean mining, Deep Rising examines humanity’s destructive pattern of extracting materials for profit and asks why we don’t choose, instead, to develop abundant resources to solve our energy problems.

The film is presented as part of the official selection from SILBERSALZ Science & Media Festival (25-29.10.2023) under the motto, “Ich sehe was, was du nicht siehst…”