Jean-Marc Barr Returns to Miami With All-New Take on Famed Free-Diver Jacques Mayol

French-American actor and filmmaker Jean-Marc Barr will attend the North American premiere of the new documentary Dolphin Man, about the life and legacy of the French free diving legend Jacques Mayol, whom Barr played in Luc Besson’s 1988 international blockbuster hit, The Big Blue, at Miami Film Festival’s upcoming 35th anniversary edition to be held March 9 – 18.

After making Jacques Mayol’s incredible life known the world over in the 1980s, Jean-Marc Barr honors Mayol and Miami by personally presenting this wonderous new documentary about Mayol. Presenting the film to North America for the first time in the same community that Mayol began his journey is all the more special for Miami.

Barr is featured prominently in Dolphin Man, which is directed by Lefteris Charitos and includes prominent coverage of the beginning of Mayol’s career working with dolphins at Miami Seaquarium in the 1950s.[/fusion_text][fusion_text]

[/fusion_text][fusion_text]Dolphin Man will be presented as one of the Festival’s prestigious Marquee events and feature an extended conversation with Barr, paired with a 4K digital retrospective screening of The Big Blue. The Festival’s Marquee series features film screenings accompanied by on-stage conversations with major film personalities of the moment, discussing their career and sharing an exciting new work.

Dolphin Man will additionally compete for the audience-voted Knight Documentary Achievement Award, and as a Canadian co-production, is in part presented in Miami by Telefilm Canada.

After the international success of The Big Blue, Jean-Marc Barr continued to make an international mark in a long association with Danish provocateur Lars von Trier, as the star of such films as Europa, Breaking the Waves, Dancer in the Dark, Dogville and many others. As a director, screenwriter and producer he has made numerous films in collaboration with Pascal Arnold, including Lovers and American Translation. His most recent film is Grain, winner of the 2017 Grand Prize at Tokyo Film Festival.

The Marquee Evening with Jean-Marc Barr featuring Dolphin Man and The Big Blue will take place on Friday, March 16, at 7 p.m., at the Regal Cinemas South Beach.

Additional Marquee events and Competition titles for the 35th Miami Film Festival will be unveiled when the complete line-up is unveiled in early February. The schedule of screening times will be announced on Feb. 9, with individual tickets going on sale to the general public beginning Feb. 16.