I am deeply saddened by the news of the death of journalist, adventurer and film-maker Folco Quilici.

His documentary Sesto Continente (Sixth Continent), that he shot in 1954, at the age of 24, was the first underwater documentary shot entirely in color, and a staple of my early school days, back in the mid-70s. And I remember seeing Fratello Mare (Brother Sea) in the parish cinema, in what I think was 1977 or ‘78 – the movie had come out in ‘75.

I tried looking for some trailers, or snippets, on Youtube, but everything I found’s in Italian.
Here you get a rather poor copy of the whole Sixth Continent – and really, it’s the images that are important.

If, as I often say, my generation was primed for exploration and adventure, it was also because we had Folco Quilici on the telly and in the parish-managed cinema, talking to us about far away places, strange creatures, different peoples, and the great big world out there.

He will be sorely missed.