In this episode of Documentary First, host Christian Taylor sits down with filmmaker Peter Kelly to explore his remarkable journey from his Mississippi roots to documenting the rich cultural and maritime history of Salt Cay in the Turks and Caicos. Peter reflects on how growing up in a small Mississippi community shaped his storytelling sensibilities, his love of history, and the creative instincts that now guide his work.

The conversation dives into the realities of filming in a remote island location—limited resources, environmental challenges, and the unexpected surprises that come with working far off the grid. Peter shares the thought process behind crafting his documentary: how he chose his subjects, the equipment he relied on, and why capturing a holistic portrait of the island mattered deeply to him.

Ultimately, this episode celebrates the art of discovery—of place, of story, and of self. It’s a thoughtful look at the creative process behind documentary filmmaking and the passion that drives filmmakers to preserve cultural heritage and amplify unheard stories.

Links:

The ShipwreckSurvey: Home - The Shipwreck Survey

Prom Night In Mississippi: Prom Night in Mississippi (2009) ⭐ 7.2 | Documentary

Cotopaxi: Cotopaxi - Gear For Good | Free shipping on orders $99+

Ikelite: Ikelite

PK Production Services: Peter Kelly | Storyteller // Adventurer // Speaker

Socials: instagram.com/PCKELLY1369

https://www.instagram.com/salt_n_silence/

DocuView Déjà Vu

Virunga, 2014, 100 mins, Watch on Netflix, IMDB Link: Virunga (2014) ⭐ 8.1 | Documentary, War

Time Codes

00:00 — Introduction: The Art of Documentary Filmmaking

01:30 — Growing Up in Mississippi: The Roots of Peter’s Storytelling

11:04 — Discovering Salt Cay: The Heartbeat of the Documentary

15:34 — Creative Decision-Making: From Writing to Filming

20:13 — Filming on a Remote Island: Gear, Environment & Resourcefulness

27:19 — Maritime Archaeology: Uncovering Hidden History

28:45 — Surprises, Setbacks & Learning Opportunities on Location

33:02 — DocuView Déjà Vu: Documentary Recommendations

Sponsor: Virgil Films http://www.virgilfilms.com/

Support us by buying merch or watching our films: https://documentaryfirst.com/

All right, and I'm gonna just tell you real quick, we're just gonna dive in and have a

conversation.

2

And it's just gonna be about your experience and everything that you've written in your

articles.

3

I'm gonna kind of ask you the same question and we're gonna talk about that.

4

All right, all right, here we go.

5

Welcome everybody to Documentary First, an inside look at the art, heart and hard work of

documentary filmmaking.

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I'm your host, Christian Taylor, a documentary filmmaker myself.

7

And every week I sit down with storytellers.

8

who capture real life on camera one frame at a time so we can learn from their

experiences, sharpen our craft and get inspired on our filmmaking journeys.

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Today we're heading off the beaten path way off to one of the most remote islands in the

Caribbean, Salt Cay in Turks and Caicos.

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My guest is fellow Mississippian Peter Kelly, writer, explorer and filmmaker behind the

upcoming documentary, Salt and Silence.

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You may have seen his travel writing and travel in leisure and travel mag.

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Travel World magazine where he captures the haunting beauty and harsh realities of Salt

Cay, a place with fewer than 50 residents and a lot more donkeys, limited power and

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endless salt flats and coral.

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And now Peter's bringing that world to the screen.

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So we're going to talk about what it takes to film in an environment like that where the

heat, salt and remoteness test every ounce of creativity and endurance and the packing may

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drive you crazy.

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Welcome, Peter, to Documentary First.

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It's so incredible to have you here.

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Thanks, I'm really excited to be here.

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I can't wait to dive in.

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Yeah, well now before we dive into the island, no pun intended, let's start at home.

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We're both Mississippi folks.

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So how did growing up in Mississippi shape your storytelling eye and your filmmaking

journey?

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That's a great question.

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You know, when I was a little kid, grew up all over the Southeast.

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And when I was a really little kid, we lived in Texas.

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I remember watching Indiana Jones and Star Wars and all these adventure movies as a kid.

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I know a lot of kids, including myself at one point, are like, oh, I want to be those

people.

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But I remember even as a little kid thinking, I want to be the person that tells that

story.

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you

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And I've always kind of been fascinated by stories and I've always been somewhat of a

writer.

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And then when I, my family moved to Mississippi in 2002, I was going into eighth grade and

I got a video camera for Christmas one year.

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And it started with me and friends, some friends making uh skateboard tapes and bad

skateboard tapes.

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Cause none of us were good, but we thought we were awesome.

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And then actually shot uh our first documentary.

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which was all about haunted places in the Mississippi Delta.

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A lot of them.

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Yeah, and we had a lot of fun with it.

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And as kids, you you get so worked up over stuff.

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We had a great time doing that.

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It was a really unique experience.

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It was not a good movie, but it was a lot of fun to make it.

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And so I kind of dove into it there.

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so I actually went to a high school in Charleston, Mississippi.

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And until 2008, the public school had a segregated prom.

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uh And there was a white prom and a black prom.

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uh there was a documentary filmmaker, there is a documentary filmmaker named Paul

Saltzman, who actually uh came to Mississippi to film a documentary about Charleston High

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School and about the first year the prom actually integrated.

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ah Now, unique thing about that is this, in this town, Morgan Freeman, this is Morgan

Freeman's hometown.

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And Morgan Freeman actually agreed, uh

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that if the school would integrate the prom, he would pay for it.

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And so he footed the goal.

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Yeah, it's pretty neat.

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And it's a great documentary.

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It's called, Prom Night in Mississippi.

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It's a great doc if you haven't seen it.

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kind of combining my love of storytelling and seeing Paul work on that project.

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Now that was the year after I graduated high school, unfortunately.

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I graduated in 2007.

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The prom was integrated in 2008.

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Okay.

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And so uh a very unfortunate thing because a vast majority of the students vied for and

pushed for an integrated prom for years and years prior to this.

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And the public school got away with it by saying it's not a school sanctioned event and it

was hosted by parent committees.

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And that's a long story for another day.

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But uh I just always loved storytelling.

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And I got this camera and started making these documentary films and uh having Morgan

Freeman be

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in my hometown, I kind of connected with that and uh I ended up, uh I don't know why,

something in my head kind of told me like, you'll never work in film, it's a pipe dream.

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And so I ended up going to Ole Miss and studied broadcast journalism.

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I did, yeah.

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and mom both went and my husband went to law school.

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There you go.

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Yeah.

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I went for...

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Yeah, Oxford's a great town.

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ah

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in fact, that ties us our Morgan Freeman connection right there.

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I ended up eating with Morgan Freeman at City Grocery.

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And so I tell everybody, yeah, I ate dinner with Morgan Freeman.

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I love it.

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Yeah.

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Well, it's funny.

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When I was a kid, we'd, we'd, um, we used to go out to him and, his ex-wife, Myrna, Collie

Lee, we'd go to their house for like parties and Halloween events.

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And my mom and Myrna are really good friends.

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And, uh, I remember telling him when I was like a junior in high school, said, Mr.

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Morgan, I'm going to work with you one day in the movies.

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And, um, so I went to Ole Miss and, um, dicked around.

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Oh, sorry.

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don't know if this is PG 13 or not.

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Sorry.

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It was around.

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I,

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went to Ole Miss and did not, was not taking school seriously.

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I was studying broadcast journalism and uh I did uh the news show, the student news show,

News Watch 99 and was on air talent for the sports team.

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And that was a lot of fun and got to do some field reporting.

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um But I realized very quickly, I didn't want to do broadcast journalism.

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And so I ended up uh just having a great time.

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I transferred away, went to South Alabama, um University of South Alabama is in Mobile.

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what year?

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uh I never graduated from Ole Miss.

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I transferred after a year and a half from being there.

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uh And so I went to South Alabama for a semester, had no idea what I wanted to do.

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So I dropped out, worked in sales, worked in a hotel, worked for a uh credit repair

company that helped people negotiate negative items on their credit.

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Miserable.

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I had like forgotten what it was like to be happy.

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So I hit pause on life, uh moved back to Jackson.

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decided to get back in school and I went to Heinz Community College.

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And while I was at Heinz, I was bartending for another Broken Egg Cafe.

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And yeah, and I was actually one of the first waiters they hired here in the Jackson

store, the Ridgeline store.

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And so I was bartending and this guy came in and he was talking about movies.

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I was like, I love movies.

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I used to want to do that.

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And he's like, oh, well, you know, my friend's dad is working on a set tomorrow.

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This was back in 2010.

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He's like, I think it's a volunteer only thing because it's for nonprofits.

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And he said, you know, if you want to go, I'm sure he'd be happy to have you.

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So I volunteered and I just went out on a film set, took the day off and P.A.'d and helped

grip and absolutely fell in love.

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Yeah, it was awesome.

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And then I ended up, you know, one set turned to two, turned to four, turned to eight,

turned to a 15 year career in film that spread across, started as a grip and then key

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grip.

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then

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Did a lot of producing, did a lot of directing, and then uh I've worked on projects.

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uh My last, I guess, five or six years, I was in the art department, production designing

and art directing, but I've worked on projects with uh Netflix, uh Apple, TV +, uh

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Spotify, A24, History Channel, Discovery Channel, Hallmark Channel.

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And uh funny enough, uh in 2021,

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I it was 2021.

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uh I got hired on as the production designer for a uh documentary series called Great

Escapes on the History Channel.

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And uh it's with Morgan Freeman.

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And so I actually went up to him and I said, Mr.

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Morgan, I don't know if you remember this, uh but I told you in high school one day I was

going to work with you and today is that day.

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He's like, I absolutely remember that.

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So that was kind of a cool moment for me.

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yeah.

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Yeah.

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cool.

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And I'm so glad you kind of got your bio in there because I forgot to read your bio in the

beginning.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, it really, really does.

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Well, do you think now you're a storyteller?

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You know, you've got this documentary coming out.

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Do you think like growing up in the South, like, you know, kind of guided your

storytelling tradition, like the slower pace and the love of place and people, did that

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influence the way you kind of

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approach your stories at all?

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Yeah, and I'm glad you brought that up.

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ah I was gonna mention that earlier and I got lost in my own thought.

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ah So yeah, that was one of the things about Mississippi and the Mississippi Delta and

moving here.

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It is a slower speed, um a slower speed of life, not slow people.

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And that's something I think that the rest of the world often misconstrues about

Mississippi.

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There are a lot of incredibly brilliant and talented people here.

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Yeah, that's right.

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But and storytellers specifically, mean you have you Dora Welty you have Richard Grant

It's just so many authors Absolutely.

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Yeah, so many so many authors And so many writers and storytellers and filmmakers.

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I mean even today John Norris and Tate Taylor uh Have turned Natchez, Mississippi on its

head with the Kirklander studios um But yeah, Mississippi, I think that's that kind of

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sparked that connection for me and and

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seeing a lot of these storytellers and because it is a smaller state, prior to living

here.

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We lived in San Antonio, Texas, moved here and it was very much culture shock.

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And then as an adult, um, I started working in film and then I moved to Houston and then I

moved back and then moved back to Houston, Texas.

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And then I moved back in 2020 and from Houston is almost five or 6 million people to a

state with like 2.9 million people.

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So the, the state has

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fraction of the population of the city.

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um And when you come, when you step away and then come back, you can really take advantage

of the fact that uh you get the opportunity to see that um there's a lot of opportunity in

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a place like this.

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And there's a lot of opportunity to make moves and you don't have to be a millionaire to

be a mover and shaker.

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And if you want to do it, the small population means that there's likely somebody who

hasn't done it before.

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And if that's the case, that's likely that the people who are hearing about it are going

to be excited about it and they're going to support it and uplift it.

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And so it's a very uplifting space for creative people and businesses for that matter.

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mean, Mississippi has a hugely growing economy and it's something in the ballpark of, I

don't want tell you the wrong number, but there's billions of dollars currently being

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invested in developing infrastructure for AI in the state.

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So, but yeah, Mississippi is a storytelling place and as an artistic community is,

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I honestly believe it's unlike any other.

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uh

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There are a lot of possibilities there.

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The other thing I think is interesting is that you crisscross with, because it is a small

state, you can crisscross with creative people who have the ability to uplift you as well

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and connect with you as well.

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so I think you're in a great place for sure.

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you've written, let's turn to your new project.

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You've written about Salt.

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which which if people who don't know about salt Kay, it's in the Turks and Caicos and some

people can say, uh, kike, kike us.

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How do you say it?

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Yeah.

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So you've written beautifully about it.

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Um, and you've written about it in travel world magazine and travel and leisure.

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So for those listeners who haven't read those pieces, can you describe what drew to this

Island and like how it became like the heart of this next film?

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Yeah, that's a great question.

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um Turks and Caicoses, I went when I was a very small kid, not to Salt Key, but I went to

Providencialis.

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And I love history.

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love storytelling, obviously, but I love history.

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I love anthropology.

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I love archaeology.

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I love the idea of the science of studying the past world and the people who get to

actually put their hands on the history that made us.

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and the history that brought us to be where we are today.

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And I'm also, I also love to scuba dive.

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I'm a big diver.

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so I uh started looking for field schools and I was curious.

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was like, is, know, great question.

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Yes, yes, yes.

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So a field school, archeology field schools are uh basically uh programs where uh people,

typically college students can go and sign up and

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go on a trip and learn how to do archeology.

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uh And so I was looking at field schools and I was curious about the storytelling behind

field schools and the process.

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And I stumbled upon a field school called the Shipwreck Survey uh run by Alex Hinton and

Ruth Stilton.

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uh And it's out of Australia and they take people from all over the world uh to different

places across the planet and train them how to dive shipwrecks.

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from an archeological perspective and how to study uh the actual cultural history uh

that's hidden beneath the waves and sometimes protected and sometimes uh deteriorating.

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uh And so I reached out to Rud and I talked to him on the phone uh via email for a couple

of times and then we chatted over Google Meet a couple of times and uh he and just kind of

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built a connection and I realized like, this is really cool what you're doing.

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Like this is a really neat program.

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This is unlike anything else because it's also a public field school.

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You don't have to be associated with a university to attend.

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Um, anybody can go really unique.

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Yeah.

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Super cool.

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um, so no, no, there's not, no, there's not.

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We, uh, there were, there were people when I went down, there were people from 18 to I

think north of 40.

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Um, you gotta know how to dive.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, but they teach you how to dive, uh, technical, like not technical diving, uh they

teach you how to dive.

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That's right.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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And so I was chatting with him and, uh, we basically kind of came upon the mutual

decision.

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Like, this is a cool story.

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This is a cool idea.

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Let's tell it.

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Where do we want to tell it from?

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Cause they offer different programs throughout different times of these of the year.

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And so he started telling me.

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And he told me about Salt Key and at first I was like, ah, that's kind of interesting.

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And then he told me more and we talked about its remoteness and you know, the closest

grocery store to Salt Key, they have one little sundry shop on the island that's, you

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know, a 12 by 12 room and they have like five goods.

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The closest grocery store is a 35 minute boat ride away on Grand Turk.

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And so it is remote, remote, remote.

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It's a very cool spot.

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And my first thought was, man, this is cool.

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I'm gonna get to go to a beautiful tropical lush island and our boat pulls up and it's,

know, other than the crystal clear bathtub blue water, it was kind of a hellscape.

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It was low land flying, lying bush, acacia scrub bush with thorns this long, two to three

inches long.

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And...

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But the people from the time we landed were lovely.

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It's just a really tight knit community.

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And so getting to Salt Key, I know, I'm sorry.

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Come on.

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Yeah.

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you're skipping ahead to the island and to the people, but I wanna take you back to the

decision-making.

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All right?

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So I'm gonna take you back to the decision-making.

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You called them, you decided, okay, this is a great place.

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We're gonna go to Salki.

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Now,

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Did you decide I'm going to write a story or did you decide I'm going to make a

documentary?

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And then how is all this being funded?

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Yeah, great question.

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um So after talking with Dr.

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Stelton and the crew at the Shipwreck Survey, and we did decide to go to Salt Key, uh the

decision was made based on its remoteness.

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We wanted to tell a good story, and the first thought was, okay, this is a documentary.

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um After going there, uh well, right before I went,

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I really dug in on a lot of research and realized, man, this would be a really great

article too.

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uh So the idea of the documentary came first.

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The writing was absolutely secondary and just kind of tacked on.

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uh But the decision to do Salt Key was rooted in its remoteness and the fact that uh

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Considering how remote it is, just makes for a much more interesting story of how do you

organize the logistics of this?

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you ever done this before?

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Because there are people that specialize in sort of this extreme photojournalism type

stuff and they have had a lot of years with this.

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Is this something you've been doing all your life?

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No, this is, uh so I've worked in film for the last 15 years, but a project like this, an

undertaking like this, this was my first time, uh first international uh shoot, first

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project that I've directed and produced.

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uh

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yourself?

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Are you like a one person crew?

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Yeah, so I got this all situated and set up uh and talked with Dr.

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Stelton from the Shipwreck Survey and I got him on board with the project and got him

really excited.

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So they actually covered the cost of me coming out on the trip.

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And so um they paid for my hotel and my airfare and my food while I was out there.

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Now I didn't get paid.

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Pretty much, yeah, so there are, that's.

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there are actually some really nice houses on the island and some really nice like hotel

Airbnb type stays.

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So, you know, I was kind of put up in a bunk house with them and it was a really cool

experience, but they covered the bill on that front.

274

And, you know, I basically had to cover all of my equipment and do a little fundraising.

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And then after I shot it,

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is not, listen, you're making that sound like that is no problem.

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But I have taken a film crew to France for three weeks and had to decide on the equipment,

which is in itself, and this is not even like a hard, you know, hard, difficult journey,

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deciding on the camera gear.

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I'm not even going underwater.

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And it's difficult to decide what camera gear, what size, what is allowed, know, what can

we get in, you know, just the different weights, just the things that made my head

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explode.

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So I cannot imagine what you were having to jump through to think about because I did read

you were only able to go on certain planes and you only can take certain luggage.

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And I'm thinking, how the heck did you make that happen?

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No, honestly that was helpful.

285

It was helpful because of that.

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So having weight limits um on baggage, knew, okay, I'm not gonna be able to take the world

with me.

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And uh realistically, I identified in advance the style in which I'm gonna be shooting.

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I this is not gonna be, we're not going for art with this.

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The story is the art.

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This is run and gun shooting.

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And so um I opted for a small kit.

292

uh

293

I instead of bringing some big camera or a red camera or a black magic camera or something

like that, I got a Sony FX 30.

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ah I got a small little, I think the small rig brand carbon fiber tripod, something

lightweight and easy to tote around.

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uh I only took two lenses.

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ah I took one lavalier kit.

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drone?

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somebody else on the trip brought their own drone.

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And so I opted not to bring a drone because they already had one there for doing the

archaeology research.

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And so I just borrowed it to go get some shots.

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And, pardon me?

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Oh, very sorry.

303

making drones smaller and smaller and more maneuverable, you know.

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yeah, for sure.

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And actually, that's something I've looked into for this trip.

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uh But uh because of the geography of Salt Key, is a...

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Salt Key is famous because of salt production.

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And what makes it so great for salt production is the highly salinic water.

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It's really salinic.

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So there's a lot of salt in the water and it's really dry and there's a lot of wind coming

across the island.

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And so the smaller the drone, the harder time it has keeping up with wind.

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And so, yeah, so I just let somebody else bring a big drone and uh not a big, big drone,

but I think it was a Mavic or something like that.

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But uh yeah, and then I bought a camera housing.

314

I was going to rent a Notacam underwater housing.

315

uh And for cheaper than buying the Notacam housing, was able to, or renting the housing, I

was able to buy an Ike light housing for the Sony FX30.

316

with a big dome port so that it created a little space between the lens and the water.

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And so you could kind of capture, I'm you've seen those shots where you can see above the

water and below at the same time.

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uh So yeah, I was able to get that and uh it's been, uh getting it all packed together was

not so much an issue.

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uh Deciding how many layers of clothes I needed or what clothes I could sacrifice.

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was where the, oh but what's funny is.

321

because you knew that the filming was the priority.

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So we're taking this equipment and so I can decide on that.

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And we know that if I have to only wear swimming trunks or if I have to wear one pair of

clothing, well, I'll deal with that.

324

But then you know, okay, I'm gonna have more than that.

325

So exactly how much more do I have?

326

So how much more did you have?

327

Yeah.

328

No, great question.

329

I actually sacrificed a lot of my clothing options.

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uh I packed and then I removed about 75 % of my wardrobe.

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ah So I uh didn't pack a single pair of underwear.

332

uh I did not.

333

I got rid of all my underwear.

334

got rid of, uh I packed three pairs of socks, two pairs of long pants that are really like

fine, thin, quick drying pants.

335

a...

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Yep.

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And I packed two swimsuits.

338

I packed...

339

two cotton t-shirts and two long sleeve, like sun shirts, like fishing shirts.

340

And those are the only clothes I packed.

341

Yeah.

342

pack in a backpack and like a carry-on or something?

343

Yeah, yeah, yeah, have a, so there's a brand called Kodopaxi.

344

They make this fantastic travel bag, it's not endorsed, but they make this fantastic

backpack.

345

they, so it's, yeah, they're great.

346

It's C-O-T-O-P-A-X-I.

347

And it's the, like, Alpha 45 is the backpack I took.

348

It's fantastic.

349

It fit all of my clothes.

350

It fit all of my gear for my camera.

351

And then all of my dive gear, have another Kodopaxi.

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It's a big duffel bag.

353

It's like a 70 liter duffel bag.

354

So I put all of my dive equipment in there uh and then put that inside of a big mesh dive

bag and checked that onto the airplane.

355

uh But yeah, all of my camera stuff uh I carried on in my Kodopaxi bag.

356

And then my underwater camera housing, I actually carried it on as my personal item for

the plane.

357

So.

358

you're tricky like that.

359

Okay.

360

it worked out great.

361

I'm looking off screen because I've got my gear here next to me and I'm trying uh to see

it.

362

So this is the housing.

363

Yeah, and worked great.

364

only listening, you really ought to check on YouTube and check out the housing that he

just showed you.

365

What else you got there?

366

Can you show us?

367

love visual.

368

sure enough.

369

here's the housing.

370

Here is the dome port that I was mentioning a second ago.

371

This is Ike light, I-K-E-L-I-T-E.

372

And this dome port is great because it's a big, let's see, a big bubble, but it creates

that distance between the lens and the water's edge so that you can actually get a little

373

bit more.

374

you get to see a little bit more.

375

It kind of opens up the space, the viewing space.

376

So, but yeah.

377

Yeah, I am.

378

got, so I was there for 16 or 17 days.

379

And in that time period, I ended up capturing over

380

2200 different separate video clips.

381

uh So I had about 2200 clips and that includes uh about nine and a half hours worth of

interviews.

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And those were interviews with the...

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uh

384

the Shipwreck Survey team, the people who were participating, and islanders, people who

live on the island.

385

uh And that's kind of the approach I wanted to take too.

386

I wanted to capture a holistic look at not just Salt Key, or not just the Shipwreck

Survey, not just the science, but why the area, why the Shipwreck Survey, or I'm sorry,

387

why Salt Key, uh and the historical significance, uh as well as kind of the modern take

to...

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uh

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you know, you've 40 plus people living on this island full time.

390

How do they feel about people coming out and scuba diving and doing this archeological

research on their islands and what is life for them like now?

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So it really is an exposition on...

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maritime archaeology, but I wanted to kind of highlight the whole world in which.

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what's the story arc beginning, middle and end?

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ah What is your, know, how are you putting the story together?

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What's the question you're answering?

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What do want your audience to walk away thinking and feeling?

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a great question.

398

ah When I first started putting this together and first started getting this project

together, ah the question was, what is maritime archaeology?

399

What does that mean?

400

Like people talk about scuba diving and shipwreck diving and watch movies like Fool's Gold

and want to go find treasure.

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And ah I've just always been a curious person.

402

And I've always wanted to know, you know, what's the reality there?

403

ah And that's the question I set off to answer for myself.

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uh In doing so, ah now that I've gone and I've filmed and I've looked back at these

interviews many, many times, uh the story that's really unfolding is what's the human

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connection?

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Why, instead of what is it, is why is it important?

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One of the wrecks we dove, excuse me, is the Endemion shipwreck.

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It's a fifth-rate British warship that sunk in 1790.

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And if you go out to the spot today, I there's 30 cannons laying on the ocean floor and we

found a lead sounding weight and five minutes before they wrecked, that sounding weight

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was in the water identifying their depth.

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So there's a story there.

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And so being able to see uh the deterioration of these shipwrecks and the deterioration of

the island of Salt Key, it is a...

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It is something that we are never going to get back.

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And so getting to be a part of uh the memory and getting to help build part of that memory

and protect that memory and protect the history, I think is a big part of the reason I did

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it.

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As far as story art goes, the question is, um why are they doing this?

417

And to capture that, was a lot of um identifying the culture, identifying um

418

what they are actually doing and getting to see this team uh actually get their hands wet

and get their hands into the sand and uplift pieces of wood with copper sheathing on the

419

side um that belonged to a ship years and years ago.

420

And instead of bringing it to the surface, they put it right back down and cover it right

back up to protect it.

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uh And I think that's an important piece of this.

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I think the story arc is just that.

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It's an exploration of um what is it, why are we doing it?

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I want people to watch this movie and think, wow, what can I do to protect cultural

heritage and what can I do to uh help pursue the craft of maritime archaeology?

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uh While also making sure that people, when they do watch it, if they go and find

something in the ocean like a gold coin uh or an old piece of, uh an old musket ball or

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cannon ball or whatever, uh either leave it there.

427

or give it to the right people who can take care of it and make sure it doesn't

disintegrate and get completely destroyed.

428

Yeah.

429

Well, and what is your hope for what will happen to this film?

430

Yeah, that's a great question.

431

we ended up, we being, after I shot this, I actually ended up partnering with uh an old

friend, Monte Kraus, who's kind of stepped in as an executive producer, and two additional

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friends uh that are also co-executive producing.

433

uh The original thought was, let's shoot this thing, let's get it into film festivals.

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um And if that doesn't work, then let's work on selling it.

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into the academic world.

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School libraries, college libraries, licensing it out so that they can use it as a

teaching piece for their archaeology programs and their anthropology programs.

437

And then the process of getting this thing shot and running through interviews, we've

started talking and uh that is still part of the plan.

438

But I think our next steps are actually going to be to try to utilize

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this piece as a proof of concept for a series to highlight the shipwreck survey uh and the

work they are doing in different countries around the world.

440

uh So going and following them on different specific shipwrecks, different specific

countries, and being able to capture the people and the interaction and the engagement

441

while also diving into the actual history and the significance of their findings.

442

that sounds fascinating.

443

I think that would definitely be uh interesting to pitch.

444

Now, when you were doing this work, let's talk a little bit about, I wanna know two

things.

445

One, oh what was the most surprising thing that happened to you or uh thing that surprised

you most?

446

And then talk about the hardest challenges of filming in that kind of environment, the

things that gave you the most challenges.

447

Yeah, I can actually answer both questions.

448

Yeah, they're kind of tied together.

449

So ah something that was really surprising as well as challenging ah was the fact that uh

if you have it, the Caribbean will break it.

450

ah Doesn't matter what you have.

451

will probably break it.

452

I did.

453

I took so many backups.

454

The one thing I didn't take enough backups of was flip flops.

455

ah And shoes to walk around in.

456

ah

457

And I was surprised by that.

458

the salt in the air, uh I ended up having to clean my tripod uh legs once a day because

the salt in the air would accumulate and I couldn't shut or open the tripod legs.

459

actually had to wash my tripod, ah which is a weird thing.

460

I never thought I'd really have to do.

461

ah And then my flip-flops broke, I think, two days into the 17-day trip.

462

uh And so I was...

463

run around in duct tape flip flops, uh interchanged with some tennis shoes when my socks

weren't drying on uh a banister.

464

uh And so the, but the challenging piece of that, I think as a filmmaker, uh this was my

first time really doing anything, any kind of major filmmaking underwater.

465

This is, I was breaking new winds, so to speak.

466

So it was uh a challenge trying to get my buoyancy right.

467

as a diver and if you don't have your buoyancy right you're gonna end up with shaky camera

footage moving up and down and bobbing.

468

um That's right, yeah, 100%.

469

And so getting my buoyancy right was uh really tough.

470

I was surprised by how tough that was.

471

uh And then the current, the current underwater.

472

Several of our dives there was a lot of current and I'd get a shot lined up like, this is

perfect.

473

And then I'd start getting pushed and the other person get pushed the other way.

474

No, so yeah, kept driving away, uh I think just dealing with the elements.

475

And I think that's, it was surprising and it was challenging, but honestly, it was kind of

one of those welcome surprises and welcome challenges.

476

I have had a dream my entire life of being uh an expedition filmmaker and uh an

explorational filmmaker.

477

And uh so I knew going into it that there would be some of that.

478

just...

479

uh

480

I don't know, I think it's all in perspective.

481

You're gonna have problems.

482

Anybody who's worked in film for any amount of time will tell you stuff's gonna break and

things aren't gonna work out and stuff is gonna change.

483

But I think being able to embrace that and roll with the punches, because in the end of

the day, you can either get pissed off and be upset that something didn't work out or you

484

can find a new way to tell a story and shift and change gears and keep rolling.

485

filmmaking.

486

And I remember when I learned to be a filmmaker, one of the first things I did was watch a

Ken Burns masterclass.

487

And he basically said, you just got to get out there and do it.

488

Just film class doesn't really help.

489

You just got to do it.

490

And then he said, being a filmmaker is solving a million problems.

491

And you just can't stop.

492

You just have to keep solving the problem.

493

And that's really what it is.

494

Every single time you're out there, you're going to run into problems, be it weather, be

it people.

495

be it emotions, be it script problems, know, and everything is always going to change,

always.

496

And um you just have to be nimble and be able to flex.

497

And I think the people that have that ability to ride those waves, no pun intended, and

figure out how you can get the story that's coming to you.

498

um

499

I think those are the filmmakers that can find the success um as opposed to fighting

what's happening.

500

yeah, I think so.

501

And I think to build on that, going back to what you'd said earlier as well, um when you

get those challenges, just, yes, you can prepare and you can, you know, it's nice if you

502

have a five ton grip truck right behind you, but at some point you just got to do it.

503

uh Casey, Casey Neistat is a documentary filmmaker and a creator and he's got an

interesting quote.

504

It's somebody, people always ask him like, what's the best camera?

505

What should I get?

506

And his response is always, whatever camera helps you tell the story.

507

And was every camera is gonna capture the story.

508

And I love that quote, like, cause even on this, on this shoot, there were times when my

Sony ran out of battery or uh I also had a GoPro 9 black with me and uh my GoPro kept

509

overheating because it's a little bit of an older model.

510

And so there were multiple times where I just picked up my phone and started shooting.

511

Exactly, I was gonna say it's almost whatever phone you have with you at the moment

because sometimes the story happens and you got your iPhone with you and you gotta use

512

that.

513

And thank goodness iPhones now are movie worthy.

514

So yeah, that is a great quote to end on.

515

You have been so generous with your time and we are now almost at your time.

516

And before we end, we have a beautiful segment here called DocuView Deja Vu.

517

where filmmakers share a documentary that they love.

518

You've already shared one, which is Prom Night in Mississippi.

519

Do you have another documentary you'd like to share with our audience before you leave?

520

Yeah, one of my favorite documentaries I've ever seen is Varunga.

521

It's a Netflix documentary and it's about Varunga National Park and it's fascinating.

522

They highlight the animals and the people who are keeping this park alive and protecting

the animals that are endangered that live there.

523

But it also kind of exposes some of the seedy underhandings of uh some oil companies that

are trying to uh basically wipe out some of these animals so that it's no longer a

524

protected area and they can go in and dig for oil.

525

uh Drill for Oil, but it's a great documentary, Varunga, and it's on Netflix.

526

V-I-R-U-N-G-A.

527

Yeah.

528

you have it, everybody.

529

We need to check that out.

530

It's always wonderful to learn about new documentaries.

531

So thank you for sharing both of those with you and your time.

532

I'm really looking forward to seeing this next new work.

533

Everybody can follow you by going to your website, I'm sure.

534

So why don't you tell everybody about your website?

535

Yep, my website is PK, that's P as in Peter, K as in Kelly, production services.com.

536

And my social media handles, same across the board, it's P-C-K-E-L-L-Y 1369.

537

That's PC Kelly 1369.

538

All right, everybody, there you have it.

539

Well, Peter, thank you so much for being with us today.

540

It was a delight to talk to you.

541

I learned a lot.

542

I'm sure our listeners did too.

543

Everybody, thank you so much for listening to Documentary First, where we believe

everybody has a story to tell, and you could be the one to tell it.

544

Bye, everybody.