Premieres Wednesdays, Oct. 25 - Nov. 15, 2023 at 8 p.m. on KPBS TV / PBS App. The latest installment of the popular SPY IN THE WILD series takes place in the ocean, the largest ecosystem on Earth. This four-part miniseries employs animatronic spy cameras disguised as marine animals to secretly record behavior in the wild. These uncanny robotic look-alikes take us to places where no spy has gone before. They will swim, float, paddle, waddle, drift and fly into every nook and cranny to film rarely seen behavior that reveals how ocean animals possess emotions and behavior similar to humans – including the capacity to love, grieve, deceive, and invent.
Didier Noirot and Roger Horrocks take us on an expedition 'Into the Dragon's Lair' to explore the one hundred meter deep papyrus caves of Botswana's Okavango delta and the actual lairs where the giant Nile crocodile drag their prey. They set out to understand and document the underwater behaviour of these wild reptiles, while exploring the fears and fascinations that humans have with crocodiles. They confront our ultimate nightmares and transform them into scientific understanding and beauty.
Cinematographer Roger Horrocks shooting in the waters of South Africa’s False Bay.
Underwater DP Roger Horrocks reflects on the moving experience of filming Craig Foster and a sensitive cephalopod in the Oscar-nominated documentary.
In the Oscar-nominated documentary
My Octopus Teacher, filmmaker Craig Foster explores the remarkable relationship that he forms with an octopus while free diving in an underwater kelp forest in South Africa s False Bay. But he wasn t the only one to be moved by this unlikely bond between man and cephalopod: Foster s friend and cinematographer Roger Horrocks found the experience to be profoundly moving. Obviously, there was a great deal of trust [from the octopus] with Craig, the DP says. I was never there without Craig, so my instinct was that this trust was transferred onto me. That obviously enabled us to get the material, because some would never come out of their holes. I mean, she was quite phenomenal in that regard.