Cave into darkness
Review by Robert Sterner

“Facing Darkness” is a 45-minute DVD documentary from Pixnat that’s a visual appetizer for any diver interested in penetrating caves. Filmmaker Nathalie Lasselin has assembled interviews with many of today’s top cave explorers, including Lamar Hires, Jim Bowden, John Orlowsky, John Jones, Bill Rennaker, Jerry Murphy and Hugh Dickson. They tell what draws them to the sport that has logged more than 300 deaths, and of advances in training and gear that have vastly improved safety today. Explorers narrate while the video progresses through passages of Florida’s limestone caves, providing glimpses of the unique marine life, fossils and formations carved by millions of years of geologic activity. Beauty of the widescreen presentation may even tempt adamant open water divers to consider cave training.