''Dave Not Coming Back'' (french: La dernière plongée de Dave) is a Canadian

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

, directed by

Jonah Malak Jonah Malak, also known as Karim Haroun, is a Canadian documentary filmmaker, producer and editor from Montreal, Canada. He is most noted for his 2020 film ''Dave Not Coming Back'', for which he received a Best Editing in a Documentary nominatio ...

and released in 2020. The film centres on diver

Dave Shaw David John Shaw (20 July 1954 – 8 January 2005) was an Australian scuba diver, technical diver, and airline pilot for Cathay Pacific, flying the Lockheed L-1011 Tristar, then the 747-400, and then the A330-300, A340-300, and A340-600. H ...

's death while attempting to recover the body of

Deon Dreyer Deon Dreyer (7 August 1974 – 17 December 1994) was a South African recreational scuba diver who died in Bushman's Hole in South Africa. Cave diver David Shaw died more than 10 years later while attempting to retrieve Dreyer's body. L ...

from the submerged

Boesmansgat Boesmansgat, also known in English as "Bushman's Hole", is a deep submerged freshwater cave (or sinkhole) in the Northern Cape province of South Africa, which has been dived to a depth of . Boesmansgat was believed to have first been explored by ...

cave in 2005, through a mix of camcorder footage from the incident and the personal reflections of his surviving friend Don Shirley.

Synopsis

On October 28, 2004, two cave divers and long-time friends, Don Shirley and David Shaw, planned a dive at Boesmansgat. Dave went to 280 meters, touched the bottom and started exploring. He had just broken 4 records at once: * Depth on a rebreather * Depth in a cave on a rebreather * Depth at altitude on a rebreather * Depth running a line While doing so, he found a body that had been lying there for nearly ten years. It was the body of the 20-year old diver Deon Dreyer. Three months later, the two friends decide to come back and retrieve it. They call Deon Dreyer's parents and ask for their permission. They enroll 8 support

rebreather A rebreather is a breathing apparatus that absorbs the carbon dioxide of a user's breathing, exhaled breath to permit the rebreathing (recycling) of the substantially unused oxygen content, and unused inert content when present, of each breath. ...

divers, all of whom were close to Don Shirley. Gordon Hiles, a cameraman from Cape Town, was filming all throughout the process - from the preparation on the surface to the operation at the bottom of the cave. The surface marshal was Verna van Schaik, who was holding the women's world record for depth. Little did they know that, from that second dive, Dave would not be coming back.

Production

Principal photography took place in 2017 and 2018, in Komati Springs and in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

, and in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

Underwater filming

The production team joined effort with Don Shirley and shot all the underwater scenes on location. Half of the scenes were shot in Don's diving centre, the Komati Springs cave, a multilevel underwater mine, 180-meter deep, with many kilometres of galleries. The other half was shot in Boesmansgat, during Don's 2017 diving expedition. Because of the lack of communication underwater, the team would rehearse on the surface for long hours until they memorize the shots and the order in which they would be filmed.

Reception

''Dave Not Coming Back'' received the Audience Award at both

Austin Film Festival Austin Film Festival (AFF), founded in 1994, is an organization in Austin, Texas, that focuses on writers’ creative contributions to film. Initially, AFF was called the Austin Heart of Film Screenwriters Conference and functioned to launch the ...

and Hamilton Film Festival 2020. The film premiered on August 17, 2020, as part of the Adventure Film Series, a special summer edition of the

Whistler Film Festival The Whistler Film Festival (WFF) is an annual film festival held in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. Established in 2001, the festival is held the first weekend of December and includes juried competitive sections, the Borsos Awards, and the Pand ...

. It subsequently premiered commercially in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, on September 11, and was screened later the same month at the Sudbury Indie Cinema Co-op in

Sudbury Sudbury may refer to: Places Australia * Sudbury Reef, Queensland Canada * Greater Sudbury, Ontario (official name; the city continues to be known simply as Sudbury for most purposes) ** Sudbury (electoral district), one of the city's federal e ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

,"Sudbury's independent cinema director says people are 'hungry' for art"
CBC News Sudbury, September 16, 2020. before being released commercially to streaming platforms in October 2020. It was released theatrically in the fall of 2020, despite a semi-lockdown due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. It was released online in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

on November 10, 2020, and in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

on December 15, 2020.

Awards and honors

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 8999972 2020 films 2020 documentary films Canadian documentary films 2020s English-language films 2020s Canadian films Cave diving Documentary films about underwater diving