Dave Not Coming Back

Dave Not Coming Back (French: La dernière plongée de Dave) is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Jonah Malak and released in 2020.[1] The film centres on diver Dave Shaw's death while attempting to recover the body of Deon Dreyer from the submerged Boesmansgat cave in 2005, through a mix of camcorder footage from the incident and the personal reflections of his surviving friend Don Shirley.[2]

Dave Not Coming Back
Dave Not Coming Back poster
FrenchLa dernière plongée de Dave
Directed byJonah Malak
Written byJonah Malak
Produced byAudrey-Ann Dupuis-Pierre
Jonah Malak
CinematographyMarwan Haroun
Hugo Gendron
Edited byJonah Malak
Music byMarc Bell
Gabriel Thibaudeau
Production
company
Nemesis Films
Distributed byFragments Distribution
Gravitas Ventures
Release date
  • August 17, 2020 (2020-08-17)
Running time
92 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish

Synopsis

On October 28, 2004, two cave divers and long-time friends, Don Shirley and David Shaw, planned a dive at Boesmansgat.[3] Dave went to 270 meters, touched the bottom and started exploring. He had just broken four 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 eight support rebreather 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 Boesmansgat, South Africa, and in Melbourne, Australia.

Don and his film crew rehearsing before an underwater shoot

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 memorized 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 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.[4] It subsequently premiered commercially in Montreal, Quebec, on September 11,[5] and was screened later the same month at the Sudbury Indie Cinema Co-op in Sudbury, Ontario,[6] 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. It was released online in the United States on November 10, 2020, and in Canada on December 15, 2020.[7]

Awards and honors
Award Year Category Recipient Result Ref.
Canadian Screen Award 2021 Best Editing in a Documentary Jonah Malak Nominated [8]
Canadian Cinema Editors 2021 Best Editing in Documentary Feature Jonah Malak Won
Austin Film Festival 2020 Marquee Feature Audience Award Audrey-Ann Dupuis Pierre, Jonah Malak Won
Hamilton Film Festival 2020 Best Documentary Audrey-Ann Dupuis Pierre, Jonah Malak Won

References
  1. Douglas Laman, "AFF Fest: "Dave Not Coming Back" is a poignant look at loss and risk". The Spool, October 25, 2020.
  2. Steve Davis, "AFF Review: Dave Not Coming Back". The Austin Chronicle, October 27, 2020.
  3. Finch, Phillip (2008). Diving into Darkness: A True Story of Death and Survival. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-38394-7. LCCN 2008024271.
  4. "WHISTLER FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES 2020 ADVENTURE FILM SERIES LINEUP". eBoss Canada, July 22, 2020.
  5. André Duchesne, "Dave Not Coming Back : unique et tragique". La Presse, September 11, 2020.
  6. "Sudbury's independent cinema director says people are 'hungry' for art". CBC News Sudbury, September 16, 2020.
  7. "REVIEW: 'DAVE NOT COMING BACK,' STARRING DON SHIRLEY, DAVID SHAW, ANN SHAW AND THEO DREYER". culturemixonline.com.
  8. Brent Furdyk, "Canadian Screen Awards Announces 2021 Film Nominations". ET Canada, March 30, 2021.
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